Privacy policy for Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy takes your privacy and the handling of your personal data and information very seriously.
Inclusive counselling is a registered controller with the Information Commission Office (I.C.O). Please find us and view on the ICO website, our registration number is ZA500418
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy wishes to inform you how it will collect, use and store your personal data, whilst informing you of your rights.
Your Data Protection Officer at Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy is Melisa Griffiths. If the need should arise to contact Melisa Griffiths, please use the following details:
Melisa Griffiths
Counselling Manager and Psychotherapist
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy
Unit 6
Sleaford Business Centre
Station rd
Sleaford NG34 9RG
07503 481681
yourinclusivecounselling@gmail.com
After a request to receive counselling or psychotherapy, Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy will need to take personal details from you. Personal details would be considered any personal information that would identify an individual. We will require, store and handle your name, telephone contact numbers, address, emergency contact numbers, your G.P details any diagnosed mental health conditions/relevant medication or treatment (past or present) and a date of birth. This personal data will be stored only on paper and never online.
We take this information to help us act in your best interests and provide you with the appropriate model of counselling. The data we store will enable us to complete administrative tasks, and action or investigate any requests that you may make. Equally we store your data so that we can investigate any complaints or concerns, identifying and protecting you and persons at the risk of harm.
Inclusive counselling also handles and stores your data to ensure its ethical professional and legal insurance requirements.
For example:
Name: Your name enables us to identify you in our filing system in the office.
Telephone number: To inform you of any changes to, or cancellations, (or for any other relevant reason), to your session.
Address: to enable us to post to you any correspondence deemed necessary for business purposes only, for example monies owed to Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy.
DOB: your DOB can be provided to a GP or external agencies for identification purposes, if necessary.
Emergency contact details; These details are taken from you so that in the event that you became ill, or if you became distressed during a session, we can call your chosen contact to request assistance home.
GP details. A GP will be contacted, and your name and DOB will be given to help identify you in the event that during counselling it is known that you pose a serious risk of harm to yourself. Your GP is not contacted for any other reason unless you request us to do so. If a request is made in the counselling session then a consent form will be completed.
We ask for details of any relevant medication and diagnosed mental health conditions to help us ascertain which approach to counselling, and/or external agencies could be contacted in your best interests.
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy has legal obligations that stipulate under UK law, that we have a duty to share your details under certain circumstances. These include situations in which we believe a child, vulnerable adult, yourself or a member of the public is at the risk of harm. We are also duty and legally bound to disclose information and details to any court of law if it is for the prevention or detection of crime.
If you do not wish to disclose your personal data when requested, we cannot act in your best interests and we would be unable to provide you with counselling sessions due to the legal, professional and ethical obligations mentioned above.
You can verbally or in writing, request to see your data at any time, and we will respond to this request within 28 days with no charge to yourself.
At Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy we consider it very important to hold up to date and accurate data and we invite you to inform us of any data that is not complete or correct.
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy’s website is fully compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). If you were to contact us via our website and email, any personal details given to us will not be retained or stored. All email enquiries will be deleted after contact has been made. Melisa Griffiths responds to website enquiries and emails using the personal details that you give, and by sharing your details it is understood that legally you are giving Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy consent to use these details to respond to your request for counselling sessions.
Your data is held and stored in lockable filing cabinets, (never online) within Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy offices. It is only Melisa Griffiths that has full access to clients personal data and client notes inside lockable filing systems.
Client notes are kept as a professional bodies and insurance company requirement. Client notes help the counsellor by providing guidance on the work shared within session, and can also be used for any legal, ethical issue or complaint. Client notes will not have any identifiable information written on them, (for example name or contact number), and these are held in a separate file to your personal data file.
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy retains your client notes and personal data in line with insurance and ethical bodies requirements and only as long as is necessary. All client notes and
personal data are stored for a 5 year period after your sessions end and are then destroyed in line with ‘The National Counselling Society’ ethical framework and insurance companies requirements.
You have the rights to view your client notes and personal data held for you at any time, and all requests must be made verbally or in writing. Melisa Griffiths will respond to this request within 28 days with no charge to yourself.
Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy will never use any of your personal details with third party marketing or use your details to contact you for promotional purposes
Your personal data cannot be accessed by anyone outside of Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy, except for in exceptional circumstances, if the law requires your personal data and client notes.
You have the right to request that your personal details or data are destroyed at any time. Please send your request in writing to Melisa Griffiths and you will receive a response within 28 days. Any request to destroy personal data will be assessed in accordance to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as well as your particular circumstances. For instance, it may be that Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy considers that they have a lawful obligation and reasons to override your request, due to the fact that we have a legal obligation for taking your personal information upon your request for counselling sessions.
If however your request was actioned and your personal details were destroyed, Inclusive Counselling and Psychotherapy would no longer be able to provide you with counselling.
Lawful Basis
Under GDPR law (General data protection regulations) Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy requests, confidentially and securely stores and holds your personal details under the following legal bases:
1. Your consent. You give your consent for your details to be processed for specific reasons, for example, to provide counselling sessions.
2. Contractual. You willingly enter into a contract with Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy, where the processing, handling and storing your data is necessary to provide you with a lawful and an ethically sound therapeutic practice.
3. Legitimate interests. Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy cannot run a lawful ethical practice without retaining personal details and client notes for a 5 year period as these are an insurance and professional bodies requirement and conformity.
Legal basis for special category data. Inclusive Counselling and Psychotherapy will ask you about your current and previous mental health conditions, as well as any relevant medication in order to work in your best interests and provide you with the most beneficial counselling. For example if you suffer with anxiety, we encourage you to to tell us so that we can individually tailor your counselling to your anxiety. This information is written in our initial assessment and/or intake form and will not be personally identifiable and will be given a client number. This information will then be held and stored in a locked filing cabinet in the Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy
office, where access to both is limited to Melisa Griffiths only. This particular information can only be disclosed where the law dictates Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy to do so. Your information is stored under Article 9 of the General data protection regulations as Melisa Griffiths is a professional member of a counselling and hypnotherapy bodies, meaning that we have an ethical obligation of confidentiality to you .
You have a right to make a complaint about how your data is stored, used and processed at Inclusive Counselling & Psychotherapy
Please send complaints to:
Information Commissioners office (ICO), (www.ico.org.uk)which is the UKs supervisory authority for data protection issues.
Inclusive Counselling i& Psychotherapy invites you to discuss any complaints before hand if you so wish.