Emily Cook Counselling Data Protection and Privacy Policy
Any personal data provided by you to Emily Cook Counselling through any means (verbal, written, in electronic form, or by your use of my website) will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the services you have requested from me.
What information do I collect and store?
The information that you give me when you initially make contact via the website is the principal data that I keep. This is information is needed so that I can make contact with you using telephone, email, Zoom and identify your address.
I may make notes after our session. These are not held electronically, will be anonymised and are confidential.
What do I use your information for?
To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from me.
To notify you about changes to your appointments and any other changes.
To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling.
To improve our service to ensure that it is provided in the most effective manner for you and for me.
To administer the arrangement of appointments.
To provide you with an invoice via PayPal or insurance.
When would I share your information?
Serious harm – In accordance with the law and recognised professional standards, I have a duty to share your information with the relevant authorities if I have reason to believe that this may prevent serious harm being caused to you or another person.
Compliance with law – I may share your information where I am required to by law or by the regulations and other rules to which I am subject.
How do I keep your information safe?
All information you provide to me is stored as securely as possible and is not digitalised.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Although I will do my best to protect your information using industry-standard protocols and encryption, I cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to me via email, including forms completed on my website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once I have received your information, I use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Your identifiable personal information is kept separately from any session notes and other descriptive material which is paper-based. Client notes and other documentation are destroyed 7 years after the end of counselling.
Your rights
You have the right to ask me to provide a copy of the information held by me in my records. You also have the right to require me to correct any inaccuracies in your information. If you would like to do this, please contact me.
You may withdraw your consent for me to hold and process your data at any time.
Changes to this policy
I may edit this policy from time to time. If I make any substantial changes, you will be notified.