Privacy Policy

Counselling With Gillian  is committed to complying with the terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into effect on 25th May 2018, and to the responsible and secure use of all personal data. As counsellors, we have a legitimate interest in processing personal data to provide counselling services. As part of our commitment to the privacy of existing and future clients, this policy is intended to give insight into the data we collect, how we use it, how we store it, and how and when it may be shared.

Why do we collect information?

Counselling With Gillian is only allowed to collect personal information for proper and lawful reasons therefore your information will only be processed if it meets at least one of the following conditions:

• To fulfil a counselling agreement with you. This includes the collection of information before we enter into an explicit or implicit counselling agreement, during your counselling and after the counselling has ended.
• To ensure Counselling With Gillian is providing you with a professional and ethical service that complies with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s (BACP’s) Ethical Framework.
• When it is Counselling With Gillian's legal duty to collect, store, use and/or transfer information to comply with legislation or the instructions of a Court of Law.
• When it is required to maintain your safety, the safety of third parties, or our own safety.
• To monitor the effectiveness of Counselling With Gillian website, and/or other marketing activity.
• To enable financial transactions between yourself and Counselling With Gillian.

How is information collected?

Personal identifiable information collected, stored, and used by Counselling With Gillian will come from our conversations, emails, texts, and phone calls. Information others may hold comes from financial transactions made between us.

What information will you hold about me?

Whether or not you become a client of Counselling With Gillian your personal data will be collected for the purposes of initiating counselling for you. The majority of this information is collected during first contact and at the initial consultation. You will be advised if any of the data requested is optional.

Enquires via Counselling With Gillian website contact form

Enquires submitted through the Contact Form on the website will collect your name, email, and a brief description of your enquiry, so that we can arrange to contact you to discuss counselling and/or to arrange an initial consultation. Enquires submitted via the website contact form are sent to Counselling With Gillian directly by email and once they are successfully delivered are then deleted from the website systems.

At first contact (face to face, online or phone)

Counselling With Gillian will collect the following information in order to establish if we can meet your needs:

• Name
• Contact information including your phone number and email address.
• You may choose to offer a brief description of why you want to access counselling.

At the first face-to-face, online or phone consultation

During the initial consultation you will be asked for your consent to give Counselling With Gillian permission to process your data and also hold information about relevant healthcare professionals (e.g., GP).

The following information will also be collected:

• Date of birth
• Contact information, including your phone number and email address.
• Geographic information from your postcode.
• Other information relevant to you engaging in counselling, e.g., the name of your GP practice.
• Information about any disability or communication difficulty you may have.

All clients will be allocated a code identifier within Counselling With Gillian personal filing system and the details listed above will be kept separate from any therapeutic information (counselling session notes).

During counselling

• Following each counselling session, short factual  notes will be recorded. These are stored on a online database that is secured with a password counselling With Gillian uses the Halaxy Platform. Your identity is protected, and these notes are not shared with anyone unless Counselling With Gillian  is legally required to do so or if you request them. Private therapeutic information, such as counselling contracts, assessment information, background information, therapeutic information, and any email correspondence that’s relevant to your counselling process (this is usually correspondence that you have sent to me) Will be also stored on the platform 
• If you make direct contact via text message or email with Counselling With Gillian between sessions, your text message/email will be acknowledged, and the content will be discussed with you at the next session to safeguard your personal information.

What do you do with the information you gather?

Counselling With Gillian collect personal information to enable us to better understand your needs and to provide you with an effective counselling service.

How do you store information about me?

We store information in two forms.

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Digitally:

• Contact information held on phone and laptop is backed up in the cloud and locally.
• Emails are held on phone and laptop and are backed up in the cloud and locally.
• SMS Texts are held on a mobile phone and backed up in the cloud storage. Resolve Counselling Services mobile phone is password protected and details are stored in cloud storage so they can be restored if the phone is lost or stolen.

In paper form:

• Client contact information, signed consents/agreements, and socio-demographic information, recorded in paper form are stored in a locked filing cabinet and are stored separately from your counselling session notes. Counselling session notes are identified by a unique code identifier so that personal details cannot be connected.
• Any information regarding financial transactions (bank statements) are stored in a locked filing cabinet.
• Third Parties may hold information in any form.

Do you share information about me?

I may share personally identifiable information with:

• Statutory bodies when required to by law or instruction of a Court of Law.
• Your emergency contacts in case of an emergency
• Statutory bodies when required to avoid harm to you, ourselves and or others.
• For reasons of public interest in the area of public health.
• All relevant accrediting/ethical membership bodies, insurers, and professional advisers in the case of you making a complaint against Resolve Counselling Services.
• A lawyer - If your information is requested by a Court of Law or you raise a legal action against Resolve Counselling Services who may take legal advice, in order to clarify whether the court has jurisdiction, and whether the request meets the strict legal criteria required in such cases. In this situation, Resolve Counselling Services may consult a lawyer to help make an informed decision about whether to release some or all the information we hold to the court. Personal information pertinent to the decision will be made available to the lawyer, who will be bound by a Professional Code of Conduct.

I may share anonymised personal information with:

• Professional counselling supervisor/s in order to ensure I am practicing effectively, safely, and ethically.
• Other counsellors who are members of a professional counselling and psychotherapy body (for example British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)) in order to gain insight and information from others who may be more experienced than ourselves.

With your written permission I may share anonymised information with:

• Other counsellors when attending workshops, or other Continuous Professional Development events.
• Counselling tutors and examiners to gain additional qualifications and accreditation.

How long will you keep my information?

I will keep your information for differing lengths of time depending on how it is held.

Digital Information:

Basic contact information, emails, text messages and calendar appointments - for technical reasons this information cannot be entirely erased and may therefore remain accessible to a technically competent person until the storage device is destroyed or securely wiped and reformatted.

Counselling With Gillian will hold your name and telephone number on a mobile phone until our counselling relationship ends and then it will be deleted from the contacts list. Counselling With Gillian  will only hold texts whilst they are relevant e.g., sent by either of us in connection with your appointments.

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Any digital notes, client contact information, signed consents/agreements, emails, created media will be deleted 7 years after counselling ends.

Paper information:

Any notes, paper copies of client contact information, signed consents/agreements, emails, created media will be uploaded  to Halaxy and this and paper information gathered during the introductory session will be shredded after 14 days. 

Counselling With Gillian s will never use your information for marketing or contact you to market a service to you unless you have specifically given consent in writing.

Sending of information outside the EU

Counselling With Gillian  will not knowingly send your personal information outside the EU unless:

• Required to do so in order to comply with the instructions of a Court of Law
• Required to do so in order to defend Counselling With Gillian  against a legal action or a complaint brought by you.

Your rights

Unless subject to an exemption under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• the right to access your personal information.
• the right to require Counselling With Gillian to change any factual mistakes in the information held.
• the right to withdraw your consent to the non-essential processing of information*
• the right to request the deletion/destruction of your personal information*
• the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office (see below).

* You can withdraw consent to the use of your personal information and/or request its destruction, however there are limits to this right laid down in legislation e.g., you cannot demand the destruction of records of financial transactions.

Concerns and Complaints

If you are concerned about the way in which any of your information is being held, please contact Counselling With Gillian 

Email: info@counsellingwithgillian.com

Resolve Counselling Services is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), registration reference:  ZB728463

If you are still unhappy you have the right to complain to the ICO.

Changes to this policy:

If Counselling With Gillian s have to make changes to this policy that are inconsistent with the original purposes for which your data was collected, you will be notified in advance and given the opportunity to withdraw consent for your information to be processed.