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.
Personal Data Processed and Stored
In my role as a counsellor in private practice I collect the following information which could identify you: your name, phone number, email address, and if appropriate your address and GP details. This is done so that I have methods of contacting you.
This contact information is stored electronically on my computer in a file system that is encrypted. The file system is protected with a strong password and must be unlocked each time before the data can be accessed.
I make brief factual notes from our sessions. These are logged in date order and only identifiable by your initials. These notes are kept for 7 years, in accordance with regulations, and are also stored in the encrypted, password protected file. You may make a Subject Access Request to access your personal data, which I would need to respond to within 30 days.
Data Sharing
The work we do together is confidential. There are certain legal exceptions to confidentiality agreements in therapy and in rare cases I reserve the right to waive the confidentiality agreement (for example if I believe a third party to be in danger). I would let you know if this was necessary and aim to discuss this with you first.
Michelle Gale 