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 (ED Directive) Regulations 2003.

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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. Please email me at anji_harris@outlook.com if you have any questions about this data protection policy.

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‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me (Anji Harris).

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I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office - my registration reference is ZB494029.

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My contact details can be found in the Contact section of this website.​

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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. I have explained these below:

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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/agreement.

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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.

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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, an agreement 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, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth and GP details. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf.

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If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 60 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

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While you are accessing counselling

I will keep the content of our sessions confidential. There are however some circumstances where I may have to disclose information to a third party. I will always aim to discuss this with you prior to taking any action; however, there are some exceptions to this as follows:

• Where there is immediate and/or serious risk of harm to yourself or others

• A court order for disclosure of information

• When required by law, particularly in relation to:

• Drug Trafficking Act (not possession of a small amount for personal use)

• Prevention of Terrorism

• Money Laundering Acts

 

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a password protected laptop, using Microsoft 365 Personal. My clinical supervisor will have access to your contact details (name, phone number, email address) only to be used to contact you in case of an emergency, e.g. if I were unable to attend sessions and unable to contact you directly. Active engagement in supervision is a requirement under the BACP Ethical Framework. All communications made in the context of supervision will be consistent with data protection agreements outlined here.

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I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept on a password protected laptop, using Microsoft 365 Personal.

For security reasons I do not retain electronic communications, e.g. emails, text messages, etc. for more than 60 days. If there is relevant information contained these messages, I will include these in your written notes.

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After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 7 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.

 

Your Rights

I will be as open as I can be in terms of giving you access to your 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 https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/.

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 it, 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 anji.harris@outlook.com.

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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.

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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 https://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, using encrypted technology, password protection and lockable filing system for any paper records.

 

Visitors to my website

I may use a third-party service to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I would do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow any third-party to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

 

I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

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I use Wix as the content management system for this website - find out about Wix and data protection here.

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Like most websites, cookies are used to help the site work more efficiently - find out about the use of cookies here.  

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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.