I will collect and use your personal information as detailed below on the basis that you have given your consent, that I have a legitimate interest in doing so (to help me provide you with the best standard of counselling that I can), and in order to meet my legal obligations.
By contacting me, you consent to me collecting your name and contact details so that I can contact you to discuss working together, including keeping emails I send or receive from you and saving your phone number in my phone. I may also ask you for information on your gender and health conditions so that I can consider this when arranging an assessment session, for example if you want to come to Nottingham Women’s Centre for sessions or require step-free access to the counselling room.
Before or at the start of our assessment session, I will provide you with a written copy of this privacy notice and ask for your consent to collect the information detailed below to help me provide you with the best standard of counselling that I can and to comply with my legal obligations. During assessment sessions, I will ask you about your pronouns, date of birth, emergency contact details, and health conditions (such as mental health diagnoses, medications and allergies). Any aspect of your life may be discussed during our sessions, which means that I am likely to hold information on you that is classed as ‘sensitive personal data’ under the UK-GDPR (for example, political or religious beliefs, or further details about your health or sex life).
I will keep electronic notes of our sessions (including assessment sessions) that will be encrypted and stored on a USB flash drive, with a backup on Google Drive. The password for these notes will only be known by myself and my clinical executor as specified in my clinical will. I will aim to keep my notes brief, recording only the information I need for our work together and to meet my legal obligations. Any written notes will be shredded once I have transferred the relevant information to my electronic records.
I will keep your personal information for up to seven years after our work together has ended. After this time, I will destroy all electronic notes concerning our work as well as your contact information and records of our contact.
In general, I will not share your personal information with anyone else without your explicit consent, however there are some exceptions:
Additionally, I may choose to share your personal information if I believe that you or someone else is at risk of serious harm, including if I think that you are at risk of suicide. If I am considering sharing your information for this reason I will try to talk to you about it first, unless I think it would put someone in danger for me to do so.
You can learn about your data protection rights on the ICO website.
If you have any concerns about how I use your personal data, you can complain to me directly using the information on my contact page. If you are unhappy with how I have used your data after raising a complaint with me, you can also complain to the ICO:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113