Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

I understand how important your privacy is. I take care to maintain your confidentiality in accordance with current data protection laws (GDPR, 2018) and the ethical guidelines of the HCPC and BPS. These guidelines have been set up to protect your confidential material and ensure that your therapist always conducts themselves with professionalism and integrity.

In order to provide you with high quality therapy and communication around it, I will hold your personal contact details and records of your therapy sessions. Please find below important information about how this information will be held and used.

Your personal information

At the point of booking your initial consultation with me, you will be asked for your personal contact information, for example your name, address, email address and telephone number and you may also choose to share details of the issues you are looking for help with.

Your contact information is stored securely on my encrypted laptop and can only be accessed by me.

In order to be able to fulfil my duty of care to you, at the time I send you my ‘Therapy Agreement’, I will ask you for contact information for your GP and elected Emergency Contact person.

This personal information will be held for the duration of your therapy after which it will be deleted from my records.

I will never pass on your contact details to any third party organisations for the purposes of sales, marketing or research and will never use your personal data for any purposes other than the administration of the therapy service I am providing to you i.e. to arrange, cancel and rearrange appointments and collect payment for sessions.

Your payment details

I receive payments by bank transfer and do not take card payments. I therefore am never in receipt of your payment details beyond the reference details that appear in my banking transaction history.

Your therapy sessions

Everything that you discuss with me is confidential. Confidentiality will only be broken if there is concern about your safety or the safety of someone else or, in very exceptional circumstances, if I am instructed to do so by a Court of Law. I will always endeavour to speak to you about this first.

Although I ask you for your GP details, I do not routinely share any information with GPs or even let them know that you are attending for sessions. I only contact someone’s GP in a scenario where I am worried about the person’s safety or the safety of someone else.

I discuss my clinical work with a supervisor. In the case of CAT, this is sometimes a CAT supervision group – with one supervisor and two other clinicians. Supervision is to ensure that I am offering you the best therapy possible. These conversations are bound by confidentiality and you will only be referred to by your first name.

I will also keep notes of each session. These are anonymised. Electronic anonymised notes are stored on my encrypted laptop. Anonymized notes in paper form (e.g. from writing in session) are kept in a locked drawer. These notes are for my use only. They help me to keep track of everything that is being discussed. In line with professional guidelines, these notes will be kept securely for up to seven years after your therapy comes to an end. After this time, they will be confidentially destroyed.

If your sessions are paid for or arranged via a third party, (e.g. your employer, a friend, or a family member), other than payment requests, invoices or receipts your therapy information will not be shared. Details about what is discussed in your sessions will remain confidential between us. Any other information can only be shared if you provide your written consent.

Your communications with me

My email account is hosted on Proton mail secure servers (with the custom domain – @londonclinicalpsychologist.co.uk). If you send an email to my email address, only I will have access to it.

All phones, tablets and laptops used to respond to your emails are encrypted and password protected.

Data Usage

I will only use your email address and telephone number to contact you about your appointments. I may also contact you directly via email in order to share information with you related to our sessions (e.g. sending you material I have referenced).

At times (e.g. before our first appointment), I may use your mobile number to send  an appointment reminder via text message.

Your rights

Any personal data retained by me is kept in accordance with the GDPR, 2018.

Under these guidelines you have the following rights

  1. The right to request access to your data

You can request to view the information that [I /we] hold about you (contact details, appointment logs etc.) at any time. If during therapy you would like to see your session notes, please let me know. Should you require a copy of your notes after your therapy has come to an end you can make this request by emailing contact@londonclinicalpsychologist.co.uk.

  1. The right of rectification

At any point during your time having therapy with me or during the seven years thereafter, while I retain your records, you have the right to request amendments to your contact details or session notes. This right can be exercised either by speaking directly to me or by contacting me in writing.

  1. The right to be forgotten

You can request that I delete and confidentially destroy the information that I hold about you and your sessions at any time. This request can be made by contacting me at contact@londonclinicalpsychologist.co.uk

Instances where I would not be able to comply with your request would be:

  1. a) It is necessary for me to retain these records in order to continue providing an effective service. (Although I would likely offer you a choice between whether you wished to continue receiving therapy or to end therapy and have your records deleted.)
  2. b) I am compelled to retain these records by a Court of Law
  3. c) I require these records in order to establish, exercise or defend legal claims

Consent

When you complete your Therapy Agreement, you will be asked to tick a checkbox to confirm that you consent to the storage and processing of your personal data for the purposes of providing therapeutic services.

You are entitled to withdraw this consent at any time and can do so by emailing me at contact@londonclinicalpsychologist.co.uk.

Breaches of data protection

In the event of any breach of my data protection policies, I will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours and will seek to rectify this immediately.

Raising concerns

Should you have any concerns about my data protection practices, you can raise these directly with your me. You can also notify the Information Commissioner’s Office. I am registered with ICO under the reference number ICO:00013361573.