​Introduction

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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 comply with current data protection and privacy laws.

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This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:

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• Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for

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• Whether you have to provide it to me

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• How long I store it for

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• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information

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• Whether I intend to transfer it to another country

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• Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

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• Your data protection rights.

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I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email. My email address is: arosspsychotherapy@gmail.com. My phone number is: 07907 779 282.

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I am the person who is responsible for your personal information. This means that I am the controller of that information and I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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I may change this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version is always available at this location, by following the privacy statement link at the bottom of my website.

 

How I use your information

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Visitors to my website

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When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Wix Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow Wix to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

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I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

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I use Wix so that I can continually improve my website, You can read Wix’s privacy notice here. I also use Wix as the content management system for my. Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently - find out about our use of cookies. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.

 

Initial contact

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When you contact me with an enquiry about my psychotherapy services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name, phone number, email address and any information about your psychotherapy expectations or previous treatment. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within one month. If you would like me to  delete this information sooner, just let me know.

 

While you are accessing psychotherapy

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Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. If there are concerns about risk to yourself or someone else. I will always try to speak to you about this first before notifying the appropriate authorities, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

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Your personal information would only be used other than in this privacy notice if first anonymised with any identifying information removed or changed so you can no longer be identified.

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I will keep a record of your personal details to help the psychotherapy services run smoothly. These details are kept securely as further explained below.

 

Deletion of your personal information

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Once psychotherapy has ended your records will be kept for one month from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

 

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

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I always have a lawful basis under applicable data protection laws for handling your personal information. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am handling your personal information. I have explained these below:

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1. If you are in contact with me to consider therapy or you are currently having therapy with me, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of or in preparation for our contract.

2. If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.

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I also look after any particularly sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately in accordance with applicable privacy laws. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. In addition to the lawful basis above, the additional condition for me handling any special categories of personal information is that it is for the provision of health treatment (in this case psychotherapy), and, if appropriate, in order to protect your vital interests.

 

Data security

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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 by using password protected electronic devices and encrypted electronic files.

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Your psychotherapy records are kept securely and are not shared with any third party except for appropriate authorities for safeguarding purposes and for data hosting purposes with reputable cloud service providers. I will keep brief written notes of each session, these are kept in an encrypted electronic document. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than one month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will record it in written notes. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after one month if it is not important. If necessary, I will record it in written notes. 

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Your rights in relation to your personal information

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I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have certain rights under applicable privacy laws, including the 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 also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you. You can read more about your rights at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/.

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To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to arosspsychotherapy@gmail.com.

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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.

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If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information, I would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first but 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 and as follows:

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Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0) 303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

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