Privacy Policy

The following information explains how I will store your personal data from the first time we make contact until our counselling sessions have finished.  

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be stored safely and securely 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 (GDPR) (EU/2016/679), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.  I am also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office [registration number ZA770027].

At our initial contact, any personal details I request, for example name, phone number and address, will be securely stored in a locked file.  If you decide not to proceed with counselling, I will ensure all your personal information is deleted within 28 days or sooner if you request.

If you decide to proceed with counselling, I will request further personal information, for example email address, GP details and medical history. These will also be securely stored in a locked file. 

I will write brief notes after our counselling sessions which will be coded and therefore unidentifiable with your personal information.  They will be stored separately from your personal details. You are welcome to request to see your personal information and notes from our sessions at any time.  Please request this in writing and I will respond within 30 days of your request.  If you feel there are errors in your data, you may also request they be amended.

Once our counselling sessions have finished, after 3 months, I will delete your contact details and any messages from my mobile phone. I will store all your written information for a further 7 years in accordance with my insurance company’s requirements.  Then I will securely destroy your personal data and case notes from our sessions. If you would like this information destroyed sooner than that date, please advise me in writing and I will do so unless there is any other residing legislation preventing this. If I am unable to work through ill health, or in the event of my death, I have appointed a qualified counsellor who will notify you of the situation and also dispose of your personal data in accordance with the above.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential and that confidentiality will only be broken if I am subpoenaed by a court of law or I feel you or someone around you is at serious risk of harm.  In this instance, I may need to share your personal information with a third party, for example your GP or emergency contact, but I will always try to speak with you first, unless there are safeguarding issues which prevent this.  

If you have any complaints regarding the handling of your personal data, please write or email to me your concerns or suggestions for improving my data protection procedures.  If you would like to make a formal complaint regarding the way I have processed your personal information, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (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.

Cookies

About Cookies
This website, along with most other major websites, use 'Cookies'. Cookies are tiny pieces of text that a website transfers to the cookie file on your computer or mobile device. The cookies we use cannot harm your computer, do not contain any personal information and cannot be used to identify you.

'First Party' Cookies

We use 'first party' cookies for Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google. These cookies don't identify you as an individual. All data is collected and aggregated anonymously to help us report on the overall usage and effectiveness of the website. Further information can be found on the Google website at http://bit.ly/MFEWuP.
We also use cookies for the 'Recently Viewed' page. People can visit our website several times before making a decision and this feature records which pages you viewed over the previous two weeks. Again these cookies don't identify you as an individual and we don't store any information on our server.

How to delete and block our cookies

If you want to delete or block our cookies, you can do so using your browser's settings. If you would like detailed instructions as to how to do this, we recommend you take a look at the guides at AboutCookies.org. Your use of our website without modifying your cookie settings means you consent to our use of cookies.

Request for more information

If you would like to know more about Perception Counselling, cookies, or any of the issues discussed here, then please get in touch by email to lisa@perceptioncounselling.com .

This policy is effective as of 24 April 2023.