Privacy Statement.
Information I collect about you and how it is used.
Before working together.
I use the platform Squarespace to host my website. If you made initial contact via the website contact form, your personal data (name and email) is not saved by squarespace.
Squarespace may use cookies to help the smooth running of my website. The number of cookies used are minimal as the site does not ask you to register for an account, or for payment details, or for pages to be redirected. Further information about cookies used by Squarespace can be found here :
https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001264507-The-cookies-Squarespace-uses
Direct messages to my email account enquiring about my service are kept within my gmail work account. This has 2 - step verification. I delete any enquires where there has been no further contact and you have chosen not to work with me, after 3 months. Occasionally, I may need to keep messages for longer periods (i.e. if there has been any safeguarding concerns).
Once in therapy.
Basic personal information (name, date of birth, mobile number, email address), will be collected for contact and identification purposes.
Your contact phone number will be stored in my work mobile phone with your first name and a client number.
During therapy sessions, I will collect personal and sensitive information about you and your circumstances (i.e. gender, ethnicity, information around your relationship, religious or other cultural beliefs, physical and mental health or condition, sexuality, offences (including alleged offences).
During the first few sessions I use formatted forms to prompt me to ask specific questions whilst we assess your concerns. Answers are written in short notes on the form and the form is scanned and stored on to an encrypted device and the hard copy shredded once we have completed working with each other.
These notes are used solely for the delivery of a psychosexual therapy service to you.
I will type up key points in a short summary after each session.
Any scanned forms and / or session summaries will be saved on to an encrypted digital device which is password protected. The forms and session summaries will be saved under your client number only. This device and any forms completed will be locked securely in a cabinet.
Your contact details are stored securely, either as a typed hard copy document in a locked cabinet or on a separate digital encrypted device from your notes.
Confidentiality.
The same information about confidentiality is stated in your working agreement. I will maintain your confidentiality unless I am legally obliged to disclose information about you. These situations are rare.
Additional to the above, if you are attending as a relationship
· Information shared within sessions where you have attended alone will not be revealed, unless a prior agreement has been discussed.
· Information shared when you have attended together, is confidential to your relationship and therefore one person cannot request access to this information for a third party. (i.e. all people that attended would need to give consent to access). If one person does request information from such a session, all information relating to the other non-consenting person / people will be kept confidential unless they give explicit consent to share.
There are a couple of exceptions to these general principles, which include:
1. Where necessary, your case may be discussed (anonymously) within supervision or a professional peer group. Notes of the discussion are only taken by me and added to your notes.
2. In the case that I am incapacitated or die, your contact details will be shared with my appointed professional executor to enable them to contact and inform you. To do this process effectively, I use the ClinicalWill.app to save your contact details only. I remove your contact details from my clinical will when we stop working together. This specialised app only shares your contact details with my professional executor if I am incapacitated or die. Further information about the app can be found here: https://clinicalwill.app/about.
All supervisors, professional peers and professional executors are bound and practice by the same professional rules of confidentiality.
3. I request your GP details at the beginning of working together. You’re GP or other health professionals will not be contacted without your permission or knowledge unless I believe in my professional opinion that you are at risk of serious harm. If you do not wish to provide me your GP details I will be unable to work with you.
4. If you reveal that someone else is at risk of serious harm, particularly a child, you will be encouraged and supported to take the necessary action. If you are unwilling or unable to do so, I have the right to contact the relevant agencies to support the safety of that person. This will be documented in your notes.
5. There are exceptional urgent circumstances which may prevent me seeking consent from you to share information. These situations are really rare and relate to stopping serious harm to yourself or others or the involvement of a serious crime where there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.
Other data collected.
Payment by bank transfer will show your name on my bank statements. Should I need to share information for financial reasons I will blank out your name and details from my statement before sharing.
I have a Ring doorbell which includes a camera which records images of people attending the building.
Access to these images are restricted to myself and my partner who I live with.
The images are saved by Ring’s encrypted system for 180 days. More information about this can be found here: https://en-uk.ring.com/pages/privacy
Your rights.
You have rights relating to information I hold.
You have the right to request a copy of the information that I hold about you.
You can ask to verify their accuracy or ask for them to be supplemented, deleted, updated or corrected.
You have the right to request that the Ring doorbell images of you are deleted.
If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email me your request addressing the request to the ‘data controller’.
The information requested will be reviewed and should be provided with you within 30 days.
Please refer to my previous notes about confidentiality relating to information shared within a session where you attended with another person. There are also limitations to the request to delete notes if there have been safeguarding concerns.
Data retention.
As a client, your information will be kept for the time necessary to provide the psychosexual therapy service requested.
To comply with legal obligations placed upon me by my insurers, I hold your details and session notes for seven years after your therapy sessions have come to an end.
Occasionally, I may need to keep data for longer periods (i.e. if there has been any safeguarding implications identified).
Sharing of data.
Rarely, there may be times where your information needs to be shared with third parties.
If this becomes necessary, I will explicitly ask for your consent before doing this and the data will be sent securely.
Rare exceptions to this are mentioned in the previous confidentiality section.
Security of your data.
Information will be kept securely and confidentially in line with the data retention policy stated previously.
I am registered with the Information Commissioner Office, under which I am considered the ‘Data controller’ for my private practice. My registration number is: ZB654292
Additional information regarding online sessions:
I am not able to guarantee online security and / or call quality whilst online. However, I will do all I reasonable can to reduce security risk.
Online sessions will not and must not be recorded
Other information.
Should you have any queries, questions or concerns about how I collect, store and process your personal and sensitive data, I am very happy to discuss.
If you continue to have concerns specific to how I have collected, stored and processed your personal data you can contact the: https://ico.org.uk/ for advice and support.