Our Privacy Policy

Letting you know what I do with your data (ie, information) and keeping things private and confidential is very important to me. When you share your personal data, whether in person with me or through my website, some data you provide will be held by me for legal and professional reasons.

The aim of this policy is to let you know what happens to your data as well as how long I keep it, how I process your data and what your rights are. My practice complies with the BACP ethical Framework and is GDPR compliant.

Definitions and Interpretation

• In this Policy, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
  • Account means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of my website;
  • Cookie means a small text file placed on your computer or device by my website when you visit certain parts of my website and/or when you use certain features of my website. Details of the Cookies used by my website are set out below;
  • Cookie Law means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;
  • Personal Data means any and all data that relates to a person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to me personally/given to me by a third party (eg, parent, guardian, teacher etc) or via my website. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); and
  • I/Me/My means Bel Graham of BUXTON, SK17 9TS. United Kingdom

Your Privacy:

No personal information that you share with me will be passed to anyone outside of my practice without your permission. If you would like your information to be shared with someone else we can agree exactly what information is to be shared and who it is to be shared with. There may be exceptional circumstances in which information about you may have to be shared with someone else even without your permission.

This would be if :

• I think that you or someone else is at risk of serious harm
• I feel you are unable to take responsibility for your own decisions.
• In an emergency or when ordered by a court of law

Should this be necessary, I will work to involve you in decisions about sharing information wherever possible and will keep you up-to-date with any actions that have to be taken.

Your Data:

I collect, keep and use information about you and your use of my services (counselling and psychotherapy) for the purposes below:

• Your name, address, email and telephone numbers which are used to contact you about your counselling / psychotherapy sessions.
• Regular wellbeing questionnaires and session case notes that are used to record how you are feeling and to help make sure that the support you are getting is working for you.
• Quotes and other feedback about how you experience my services which are used anonymously for publicity and funding reports. I will always ask for your permission to use your data for these purposes.
• Details about your age, ethnicity, gender, school/employment and types of issues faced which are used in order to ensure non-discriminatory, ethical and appropriate therapeutic services.
• If someone else has contacted me for you, I will also store the personal information of the person who passed on your information on your behalf.
• My website will also place temporary text files called ‘Cookies’ on your computer in order to help gather anonymous data about your experience on my website and to identify unusual behaviour which might be malicious

All the information I keep about you is held in a secure database, secure online store and locked filing cabinets and is only seen by me or other professionals directly involved in supporting you. Any personal information held on paper is shredded immediately after use and Identifiable information is securely destroyed and deleted 7 years after your final contact with me or 7 years after your 18th birthday whichever is longer. You can ask for your information to be deleted at any time by writing to Bel Graham of BUXTON, SK17 9TS.

Your Rights:

You have a right to see any information kept about you (unless under exceptional circumstances, in my professional opinion, I believe this would cause further harm) and to have that information corrected or deleted. Please contact me at my registered address: Bel Graham of BUXTON, SK17 9TS. You have the right to refuse permission for me to keep or share your information and to change your mind about it at any time by informing me at the registered address.

If you are unhappy with the service or the way you and your information have been treated, then you can complain my website’s contact page; through the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (of which I am a member) or to the Information Commissioner’s Office (with which I am registered).

Subject Access:

There are specific provisions in the GDPR as implemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), creating protective limitations on disclosure of children’s personal data to a child client or to others (for example those with parental responsibility for a child who have asked to see the child’s counselling records). Disclosure of data may be refused or limited in situations where there may be any risk to the child or others from such a disclosure, or where a disclosure might jeopardise a social care or police investigation etc – for example, in child safeguarding or child protection situations.

For general advice about children and data processing, see the ICO website at Children and the GDPR (accessed 21st February 2019).

This Policy was created on behalf of Bel Graham Counselling on 27/05/20. If you have any questions about this policy, please email: enquiries@belgrahamcounselling.co.uk