Privacy Policy

counselling Leeds personal growth depict

Privacy and consent form for website visitors and counselling clients

At Right Insight Counselling we offer a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space in which to work with clients.

Alongside our strong professional commitment to protecting client confidentiality; we take data protection seriously and are committed to treating your personal information with the utmost care, respect and transparency.

As such, our privacy policy covers how your personal data is processed; what information is recorded, how it is used, and how long it is kept for, before being securely destroyed. Plus how your personal information is lawfully processed under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and your rights under data protection law.

Data controller details

Jessica Seaton BSc (Hons), MBACP, MUPCA, DipCoaching, DipSupervision, BACP Registered, and UKCP Accredited Psychotherapeutic Counsellor

Trading as Right Insight Counselling

Address: London and Leeds

Email: jessica@rightinsightcounselling.co.uk

Telephone: 07795 253457

Website: www.rightinsightcounselling.co.uk

Registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) number: ZA405256

The purposes for processing client personal data

We only use your personal data for the purpose for which it was first collected, for example:

If you contact us by phone, email, or by filling in the contact form on the website with a question about our counselling services; we will only use your details you have given (e.g. your name, phone number, email, your message) to reply to answer your enquiry and hopefully be able to help.

If you become a counselling client, then we will only use your contact details (as above) when the need arises outside of your session to communicate regarding administrative matters such as invoicing or re-arranging your counselling session. Emergency contact details would only be used in case of an emergency.

Ongoing counselling clients: during your session we may take confidential brief notes of issues that we are helping you with, for the sole purpose of the counselling work (e.g. continuity of your sessions and maintaining focus to provide the most appropriate and therapeutic service).

Our sole focus is helping you with counselling and at Right Insight Counselling, we never ‘add clients to a marketing list’, or send ‘mailshots’, nor do we share your data with third parties for marketing purposes, as privacy and confidentiality is of paramount importance to our service.

Sharing of your data

We would only share your data, again for the purpose of your counselling work, and this would be with your written and signed consent, which would be discussed at the outset of our working together.

Examples of sharing your data with other agencies may include:

If there is an imminent risk of significant harm to yourself, children, or others.

If we were required by law (e.g. terrorism, money laundering, or due to a court order).

How long your data is kept before being securely destroyed

We aim to keep your data (written and electronic) for only as long as necessary as follows:

Initial enquiries (your name, phone number, email, your message) will only be kept while we are in correspondence answering your query, or arranging an initial counselling session.

If we do not go on to work together your contact information will then be securely destroyed (electronically deleted, hard copies shredded) after 1 month of no further communication.

For ongoing clients, your contact details, and confidential client notes, will be kept as long as they are necessary to refer back to, to support our ongoing work.

At end of our counselling agreement, or if taking a break from counselling: with your consent, your confidential client notes may be securely archived and saved for continuity on your return, if you think there is a chance that you may return to counselling within the next 12 months.

If you decide that you are ending counselling, and do not feel that you may need to return, then all the data that we can (by professional obligation/law – see below) will be securely destroyed after 1 month of ending our work.

Please note, through professional indemnity by our public liability insurers, we may have to keep some data for 6 years after the ending of counselling work, before being securely destroyed.

Please note, by law, for accounting and tax purposes, we have to keep financial records for 6 years after the financial year end, after the ending of counselling work, before being securely destroyed.

Your rights under data protection law:

You have a right to access a copy and explanation of your personal data and confidential client notes within 30 days. We will honour this; and we would suggest the most beneficial way of explaining this would be at the next, or nearest convenient time for your counselling session appointment.

You have a right to request correction or erasure of your data in certain circumstances, and again we would be happy to work with you on this to ensure your details were accurate, up to date, and still relevant to our work.

You have a right to object and withdraw consent for processing of personal data.

If you have any concerns about the way we are handling your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.org.uk

How we store your data

Our aim is to only store as much data as is necessary to ensure you get the most benefit from your counselling sessions as follows:

We keep electronic records to an absolute minimum, and prefer to use phone, text and email communication for administrative purposes such as arranging appointments and invoicing only. The rest of your counselling work wherever possible is kept within the safe space and time of your appointments whether method of meeting is by phone, skype, or face to face.

Telephone numbers and abbreviated names are held on a mobile phone, that is only used by your counsellor, and the phone is password protected.

No identifiable client data is stored on a pc, other than emails (see above). Again the work computer is only used by your counsellor, and the device is password protected.

Confidential data, and client notes are stored in locked filing cabinets. The room is are only accessed by Right Insight Counselling employees, and the room when not in use is securely locked.

Where possible, for written diary entries and client notes, clients name will be initialised (or some other anonymous identifier will be used instead). Again, these are either with therapist or stored in locked filing cabinets or secured room.

Data breach

We have a duty to report any data breach to the ICO within 72 hours, and any serious or sensitive breach of data also to the persons affected.

Data our website collects

(In addition to the data you enter on our contact form, above) Our website collects limited data about visits to our website, for example location data or IP address. We do not use this data to personally identify you, and any data collected is to improve user experience of our website.

Use of Cookies by this site

Cookies are small text files downloaded and placed on your device (pc, laptop, tablet, mobile) by websites that you visit. They are used to help websites work efficiently by recognising your device, provide a smoother browsing experience, plus provide anonymous data to the site owners about visitors use of it.

We do not use cookies to collect information that could personally identify site visitors.

You can select your use of cookies via the pop up cookie notification and by following the instructions of your device preferences.

Links to third party sites

We provide some useful links on our website. These mainly are to large established, nationally recognised ‘helping’ organisations and charities to suggest extra resources for people struggling with issues. We provide links to websites in good faith, we do not receive any payment for doing this, and without liability. We do not guarantee the safety of the use of these links/third party websites.

Your consent

Do you agree to us using your data in this way:

Decision (delete as applicable): yes/no

Name:

Signature:

Date:

If you wish to remove your consent to our use of your data at any time then please inform us during your counselling session, by email: jessica@rightinsightcounselling.co.uk or telephone: 07795 253457