Introduction
Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure 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 (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
This privacy policy tells you what I will do with your personal information from the initial point of contact through to after your therapy, supervision or coaching has ended, including:
- Why I process your information and what purpose I am processing it for
- Whether you have to provide it to me
- How long I store it for
- Whether there are other recipients of your personal information
- Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and
- Your data protection rights.
I am happy to talk through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via mycontact formon my website or find my contact details in my email to you.
‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me.
I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information
The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:
- If you have had therapy, supervision or coaching with me and it has now ended, I use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information for up to 7 years, in line with the requirements of my practice insurance.
- If you are currently having therapy, supervision or coaching, or if you are in contact with me to consider working with me in any aspect of my services, I process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.
The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’.
- The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information for my therapy work is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you) and that you have provided your consent for me to do so for the purposes of providing counselling. When you book a session with me via Calendly you are asked to confirm that you agree with my Counselling Agreement. This is our contract.
- The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information for my supervision and coaching work is that we have a contract for services (a contract between me and you, or a contract between me, you and a third party e.g. your employer) and that you have provided your consent for me to process your data for the purposes of providing supervision or coaching services. When you book a session with me via Calendly you are asked to confirm that you agree to my Supervision Agreement or my Coaching Agreement. This is my contract for services.
- If you sign up to receive a free guide, email resources or course updates from me, I will rely on the consent you provide when signing up as my lawful basis for processing your personal data for this purpose. You can withdraw this consent at any time by unsubscribing from these emails or by contacting me.
How I use your information
Data security
I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. I use encrypted devices and password-protected systems. Any hard copy paperwork that includes your data is kept in a locked filing cabinet.
Initial contact
When you contact me via Calendly or via my website with an enquiry about my counselling, supervision or coaching services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name, email address, and a brief reason for why you are contacting me. It is possible your line manager or another stakeholder at your place of employment may make a therapy, supervision or coaching referral on your behalf via my website or via a health professional, or a relative or trusted individual may provide your details when making a therapy enquiry on your behalf.
If you decide not to proceed I will delete the electronic copy of your contact form within 12 months. If you would like me to remove this from my email system sooner, please let me know.
Forms on my website
If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host and form host (Formspree) before being sent to me and treated in accordance with the this Privacy Policy.
If you fill in a resource sign-up form on my website, the information you provide will be sent to Kit so that the requested resource and related email updates can be delivered to you. I may also use the option you select on the form to send further resources that are more relevant to you in the future. You can unsubcribe from marketing and resource emails at any time.
Free resources and email updates
If you sign up to receive a free guide or email resources from me, I will collect your name and email address so I can send you the requested resource and I may send you occasional related information about my areas of professional interest, which includes menopause, hormone health, fertility, miscarriage and baby loss, women's health, mental health, neurodivergence, therapy resources or relevant courses, and other topics relevant to my services. This is separate from making a therapy, coaching or supervision enquiry, and you should not include sensitive health information when signing up for a free guide or email resources via this form.
For this purpose, I collect only the information needed to manage the email subscription, such as your name, email address and the page or form through which you signed up. Resource sign-up forms are not intended for confidential messages, therapy enquiries, clinical information or urgent support requests.
You can unsubscribe from marketing or resource emails at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email, or by contacting me. Unsubscribing from these emails will not affect any separate therapy, supervision or coaching relationship or communications related to this relationship.
I will keep your email subscription data until you unsubscribe, ask me to delete it, or I decide to close the mailing list. My email platform may retain unsubscribe records where needed to make sure you are not contacted again.
While you are accessing counselling, supervision or coaching
Everything you discuss with me in our introductory call or in our counselling, supervision or coaching sessions is strictly confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken in the circumstances detailed in our Counselling Agreement, Supervision Agreement or Coaching Agreement under Confidentiality.
Before commencing sessions I will collect information including your name, the address where you are likely to access our online or telephone sessions, your emergency contact details, GP details and you may choose to provide me with information about any medication you are taking. I collect and hold this information while we are working together for use in case of emergency.
Therapy clients, supervisees and coaching clients book their sessions via the Calendly booking link that I will provide to you. Calendly retains your name, email address, phone number (if provided) and the information you provide in the booking form. Payment is managed via Calendly’s Stripe integration so Stripe hold your name, email address, address and payment details.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help my counselling, supervision and coaching services run smoothly. I keep brief notes of each session. These are kept electronically in a secure, password-protected system, and are not shared with any third party. If you or a third party sends me important information relevent to our counselling, supervision or coaching work contained in an email or other form of messaging to me I may transfer it to your secure, password protected electronic notes. If I consider it necessary I will retain written correspondence for up to 7 years in line with my business insurance policy details. I keep a hard copy of your contact form or Calendly introductory/discovery call booking email in my locked filing cabinet so I have your contact details to hand in the unlikely event that my technology systems fail.
After coaching, counselling or supervision has ended
Once our Counselling, Supervision or Coaching Agreement has ended your records will be kept for up to 7 years from the end of our contact with each other in line with my business insurance policy and they are then deleted. I keep a hard copy of your initial contact form/Calendly Introductory/Discovery call booking email and a brief Discharge from Therapy, Supervision or Coaching form in a locked filing cabinet for up to 7 years from the end of our counselling, supervision or coaching agreement in case you should seek my services again. If you would like me to delete and/or destroy your information sooner than 7 years from the end of our agreement please let me know via email.
Third party recipients of personal data
I may be required to share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks such as automated administration processes. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.
I use Google Workspace, a UK/GDPR-compliant, cloud-based suite of productivity tools to host my business email, documents and cloud storage.
I use Calendly, a GDPR-compliant, scheduling tool, to allow counselling clients, supervisees and coaching clients to book sessions directly into my diary and manage their sessions flexibly. Calendly uses Stripe, a PCI-compliant pay processor for encrypting and storing credit card details.
I use Kiku, a DUAA-compliant and GDPR-compliant, fully encrypted and password-protected practice management software, to securely store my client data, confidential and thereapeutic communication and clinical notes.
I use Kit, an email marketing platform, to manage free resource sign-ups, email delivery, mailing list consent, unsubscribe requests and related email analytics. Kit is used only for marketing and information emails, not for therapy enquiries, client notes, clinical records or confidential therapeutic communication.
I use Zoom, a cloud-based video conferncing platform, to host online counselling, supervision or coaching sessions. I disable recording and AI companion services to protect your confidentiality.
Whilst I make every effort to ensure the data integrity of any third party I use for online sessions and for the administration of my counselling, supervision and coaching practice, I cannot guarantee that it any of the third parties I use are 100% secure. Likewise, I cannot guarantee that telephone counselling, supervision or coaching will be 100% secure.
Please note, these providers may process personal data outside the UK, including in the United States.
Your rights
I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.
If I do hold information about you I will:
- give you a description of it and where it came from;
- tell you why I am holding it, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision;
- tell you who it could be disclosed to;
- let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.
To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing via the contact form on my website themenopausetherapist.com.
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures. If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the 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.