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Privacy Notice

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 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.

Information I Collect

The type of personal information I may collect to provide therapy includes your name, date of birth, contact details (address, telephone, and email), details of your GP and/or psychiatrist, relevant medical history, history of counselling/therapy, Zoom accounts or other Internet contact details.

How I Use Your Information

Personal data is collected and held for the purpose of providing counselling or psychotherapy services, managing appointments and communication, maintaining appropriate clinical records, and fulfilling professional, ethical, and legal obligations. Data is processed in accordance with UK data protection legislation and the BACP Ethical Framework, and only information that is relevant and necessary for these purposes is retained.

Data Storage and Security

Any personal data you provide through any means, verbal, written, and/or in electronic form, will be securely processed and stored electronically, anonymised, and protected by a password. This data will be held in strictest confidence and only in relation to purposes relevant to your psychotherapy treatment. The information you share will be kept securely for an appropriate length of time – currently for GDPR and insurance purpose this is stated as 7 years. It will then be disposed of securely. I will delete all your electronic data from my computer system entirely. Any paper-format notes will always be anonymised and shredded after finished with their purpose.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a fundamental part of my work. As a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), I work within their Ethical Framework, which means what you share in sessions is kept confidential. I will not disclose any of the personal information shared with me, except in rare situations where there are serious concerns about safety or where disclosure is required by law. These exceptions will be explained to you clearly in the therapeutic contract.

Your Rights

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 it, 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 mcassinellitherapy@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 writing or emailing to the contact details given above.

If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information 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.

Contact

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me at mcassinellitherapy@gmail.com or 07707 302993.

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