Introduction

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.

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, including:

• Why I can process your information and what purpose I am processing it for

• Whether you must provide it to me

• How long I store it for

• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information

• Whether I intend to transfer it to another country,

• Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

• Your data protection rights.

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy. The best way to contact me is via email.

‘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. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, and my registration number is: ZC222886.

My postal address is: Helena Gloeckner Therapy, Gothic House, Barker Gate, Nottingham, NG1 1JU

My email address is: helenagloeckner.therapy@gmail.com

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:

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 Therapy Agreement.

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 consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).

How I use your information

Initial contact

When you contact me with an enquiry about my services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your full name, phone number and email address.

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

While you are accessing therapy

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken under specific circumstances. These circumstances are rare and usually only very limited data needs to be shared with someone else. As much as possible, I will try to keep you informed and involved in this process. My confidentiality policy is detailed fully in my Therapy Agreement, which is discussed and signed in the initial therapy session.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help my therapy services run smoothly. These details are kept securely in a locked location accessible only to me and are not shared with any third party. I will keep brief written notes of each session; these are kept securely in a locked cabinet and anonymised with a unique client code.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than six months. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after six months if it is not important. If it includes necessary information, I will print the email and add it to your confidential personal details before I delete it.

After therapy has ended

Once therapy has ended your records will be kept for 5 years from date of our last session and then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

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 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 subject access request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to helenagloeckner.therapy@gmail.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. I use a variety of methods to ensure security, including using encrypted devices, two-factor authentication, password-protected documents and locked filling cabinets.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third-party service, Squarespace, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I 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 Squarespace 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.

I use Squarespace’s analytics service so that I can continually improve my service to you. You can read Squarespace’s privacy notice here https://www.squarespace.com/privacy.

Like most websites, this site uses cookies to help the site work more efficiently. Find out about the Squarespace’s use of cookies here: https://www.squarespace.com/cookie-policy. You can manage the use of cookies on this site at any time by clicking on ‘Cookie Preferences’ in the bottom-left hand corner of any page.

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.