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, the Data Use and Access Act 2025 (DUAA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
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:
- · Why I am able to 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 intend to transfer it to another country.
- · Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and
- · Your data protection rights.
I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy, and you can contact me via email at newaspectcounselling@gmail.com
‘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, ref: ZA255571
My postal address is: The Healing Rooms, 162 Gloucester Road, BS7 8NT.
My phone number is: 07932896795.
My email address is: newaspectcounselling@gmail.com
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 with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will 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 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). In the event of me needing to disclose information under public interest, this would be und schedule 1 conditions 17 (counselling) or 18 (Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk).
How I use your information
Initial contact
When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will need to collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name, mobile number, email address and a brief summary of your reasons for wanting therapy. 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 after our introductory call 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 counselling.
Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. I will keep all information provided by you confidential save for clinical supervision and where the I am required by law (or a strong moral obligation) to disclose some material facts and information to a third party. Such circumstances include, but are not limited to the immediate risk of substantial harm to the client or others, terrorism, safeguarding risks, reporting of serious crime and acts in the public interest. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the process of counselling run smoothly. These details are kept securely on paper and are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept on paper and stored securely.
For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 3 months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will note this on your client notes sheet. Any email correspondence will be deleted after 7 years post completion of therapy.
I do not intend to transfer your information to another country. I do not carry out automated decision making or profiling. I do not use your information for the purposes of scientific research, nor do I intend to do this in the future. I do not offer counselling to those under 18.
After counselling has ended.
In line with the requirements of my insurance, once counselling has ended your client records will be kept for seven years 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.
Third party recipients of personal data
I may share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. 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.
WebHealer
When you access my website cookies will be recorded by Webhealer. When you send me a message via my website it is sent via Webhealer using their automated system, and your message is not retained by WebHealer.
Counselling Directory & BACP
I use Counselling Directory and BACP for their counselling directories and enquiry online service – if you enquire through these websites they will use cookies when you access their website and use an automated system to send on your message will not retain the message.
Zoom
I use Zoom to provide online counselling sessions. Zoom may process limited personal and technical information necessary to provide the service. Information discussed during sessions may include special category personal data. Sessions are not recorded or transcribed. Zoom may process information in the UK and/or other countries with appropriate UK GDPR safeguards applied where international transfers take place. I do not record counselling sessions or use Zoom's recording, transcription or AI features for counselling sessions.
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 its, 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, addressing it to newaspectcounselling@gmail.com.
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by 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 me using the email address above. Alternatively you may email 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.
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. Personal data kept about you is kept in a secure locked filing cabinet.
A record of the occurrence of counselling sessions is kept on my computer, but no personal details are used, only a unique code.
When someone visits my website, my website provider, Webhealer will 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 WebHealer to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. My website uses cookies, which are not essential for the functioning of the website, for more information you can read my cookie policy here: https://www.newaspectcounselling.com/website-cookies
No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored by the web host before being sent to me.
I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.
I use Google Analytics so that I can continually improve my service to you, You can read their privacy notice here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites?hl=en-GB
