Humanistic Counselling Bournemouth

Privacy Policy

Information Collection

The information that I collect about you includes session notes, contact and emergency details and sensitive personal details that form part of my assessment process. This information is kept as brief as possible.

Your notes, contact and emergency details are kept for 5 years, in line with my professional indemnity insurance and your sensitive personal details are destroyed upon completion of our work together.

The contact and emergency details that I collect are:

  • Your contact details, including full name, address, telephone number, email address
  • Your GP’s details, including the name, address and telephone number
  • Emergency contact details, including a name and telephone number

Sensitive personal details that I collect are:

  • Your medical history, including medical condition(s), known allergies, medication and psychiatric history
  • Your ethnic background, race and religion
  • Your sexual orientation and relationship status

 

Why does Stormbird Counselling need this information?

  • These details are kept for the purpose of contacting you to arrange sessions
  • In case of emergency, for instance if you were to become unwell during a session
  • In cases of confidentiality disclosure exceptions where I may need to contact outside agencies or professionals (please see overleaf and your Working Agreement for details).
  • As part of the assessment process, brief, sensitive personal information is kept to understand your history and current situation

 

How is my data stored?

  • Your personal information will remain confidential, stored either physically in a lockable file or digitally using password protection.
  • Notes are kept brief, with minimal information.

 

Your personal information will never, ever be sold or used for any unethical reason.

 

When might my data be shared?

It is incredibly rare that I would ever need to share your personal information, however, there are some circumstances that I might need to. These are:

  • If I am issued an order by a court of Law, then I am obliged to break confidence
  • If you disclose that a serious crime has been committed, such as terrorism, drug trafficking or money laundering.
  • If you intend to harm yourself or others and I believe there to be a substantial risk
  • If a child or vulnerable adult is at risk, in line with the Children’s Act 1989 (amended 2014) and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.

Wherever possible, I will inform you that I need to share your personal information with an outside agency or professional.

 

Additional information for Young People

For the purpose of this document, a young person is defined as a person aged ten to eighteen years old

If you tell me that you have harmed yourself, that you are being harmed by somebody else or that you want to harm another person, then I have a duty of care to protect you and to keep you, as well as others, safe. This means that I may need to:

  • Speak with your parent or care giver (or emergency contact), to ensure your safety outside of your session with me.
  • Contact an outside agency, such as CAMHS, MASH, a social worker or in very occasional circumstances your school.

Wherever possible, I will tell you first before I speak or correspond with somebody else about you.

Your session notes will be kept for five years past your 18th birthday. After this date your notes will be confidentially destroyed.

NB: ‘CAMHS’ stands for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, ‘MASH’ stands for Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub

 

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal information and these are as follows:

  • You have the right to request, in writing, a copy of your personal information, free of charge, in electronic or paper format. I will respond to your request within one month.
  • You have the right to ask me to amend or change any incorrect information that I hold about you.
  • You have the right for information that is no longer relevant to the original purpose for which it was created to be erased.
  • You have the right to withdraw your consent to my use of your data. You can request this in writing. There may be a legal requirement for your data to be retained, in accordance to my professional indemnity insurance provider. I reserve the right to ascertain this from my insurance provider before responding to such requests.

 

If you are in any way unhappy with the way that I use your data, or would like more information, then you can contact or complain to the ICO at www.ico.org.uk or by phone on 0303 123 1113.