Introduction
Your privacy is very important, you can be assured that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended. I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy, you can contact me via francisco@insightfulmindgrowth.com
‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office with the registration number: ZB408185. Insightful Mind Growth Ltd is a limited company registered at the Companies House UK under the company number 14482195
My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information
The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data.
If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information. If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
How I use your information
Initial contact. When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name and a contact method, for example an email address or phone number. If an enquiry is made and you decide not to proceed, I will ensure that all your personal data is deleted within one month. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please let me know.
While you are accessing counselling. Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if there are legal or ethical obligations to disclose, for example, if you disclose something that implies serious harm to yourself or others, or if a court of law requires me to disclose information. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
Counsellors are required to have regular supervision support so I may discuss our work with my supervisor. In these instances, you will remain anonymous. I keep brief notes of our therapy sessions for the purpose of assisting our work together. The notes help me to keep track of the issues that we are working on, and they are for my use only. The notes do not include any personal details that could be used to identify you and they are stored securely like your personal information.
I will keep a record of your personal details and notes of our sessions to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely stored in a password secured folder in my computer, which is also locked with a personal sign in password and are not shared with any third party.
After counselling has ended. Once counselling has ended your personal details record will be kept for five years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.
I use Microsoft Office 356 as the platform to contact you via email or to conduct the sessions via a live video system, as well as a storage system where I securely keep your personal records.
Your rights
I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.
If I do hold information about you I will:
• give you a description of it and where it came from;
• tell you why I am holding its, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision;
• tell you who it could be disclosed to;
• let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.
To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to francisco@insightfulmindgrowth.com
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.
If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Data security
I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. My email account is password protected and mobile phones and laptops used to respond to your emails are password protected and have anti-virus software. Your personal details and sessions notes are kept securely stored in a password secured folder in my computer, which is also locked with a personal sign in password and are not shared with any third party.