Privacy policy

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. 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. The GDPR act ensures your personal and confidential data is kept private and held securely and that it is processed in the way that you have agreed to. It protects your rights as a consumer of a service or product that might involve your identifiable data, e.g. your name and address or whether you have a specific condition. It also covers any session records, text messages or emails we exchange.

What information do you record during sessions and how is it secured?

Everything you discuss with me is confidential. I will keep a record of your personal details and some medical information. These details are kept securely in paper and electronic form, locked or protected by passwords, PINs and multi-factor authentication. They are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 7 days. Any email correspondence will be deleted after 7 days if it is not important.

How long do you keep my information?

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 6 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. Under GDPR you have the right to request your data is deleted sooner than this – if this is the case, please contact me. 

Do you share my data with any third parties?

I will not share your personal information with any third parties.

Do I have rights on my data that you store?

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.

Do you store information when I visit your website?

I do not use any web analytics and no user-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily
stored on the web host before being sent to me. Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently.