Alison Broughton trading as Green Space Therapy & Counselling knows you value your privacy. The trust placed in me is especially 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 and forms part of our website terms and conditions. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office – ZA792780.
By accepting our Website Terms or by visiting www.greenspacetherapyandcounselling.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. The website is brought to you by Alison Broughton trading as Green Space Therapy & Counselling. Alison Broughton trading as Green Space Therapy & Counselling believes it is important to protect your Personal Data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) and we are committed to giving you a personalised service that meets your needs in a way that also protects your privacy. This policy explains how we may collect Personal Data about you. It also explains some of the security measures we take to protect your Personal Data and tells you certain things we will do and not do. You should read this policy in conjunction with the Website Terms.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully, it contains important information about how we protect, use, and process any personal information you give to us. We aim to be clear when we collect your data and not do anything with the data you would not reasonably expect.
The GDPR states that we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which we are 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)
When we collect your information
There are a few occasions when we might collect information from you. These include when:
You call or email us to make an enquiry about this website; or to make an appointment to meet me.
You give us this information face-to-face if we meet on any occasion.
You give it to us via a subscription box, contact form or comment boxes on our website.
We will not collect this information from you at any other time.
How we collect your information
We collect information in the following ways:
When you give it to us directly;
When you contact us via our website;
We do not collect your data in any other way. We will only ever get it from you.
Initial contact.
When you contact us with an enquiry about our counselling services, we will collect information to help us satisfy your enquiry. This will include name, age, address, email address and telephone number. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send us your details when making a referral.
If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 2 weeks.
While you are accessing counselling.
Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. The limit to confidentiality is if you were at risk of harm, or a vulnerable adult or child. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this and If you tell me about money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism or modern slavery.
I will collect your Doctor’s details: If I were worried you were at risk then I may need to contact your GP, I would tell you first.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a password and fingerprint protected computer and are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept in a lockable cabinet which only I have access to.
After counselling has ended.
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 6 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed.
How we protect your information.
I am an experienced counsellor / psychotherapist, fully trained in the importance of maintaining confidentiality. I go to great lengths to keep all your information safe. I invest in the appropriate resources to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. I make sure I manage it in accordance with my legal responsibilities under applicable data protection laws.
However, no internet-based platform, including email, is 100% secure, so we cannot be held responsible for unauthorised or unintended access that is beyond our control. When we communicate via email, there is always the possibility that email platforms can be hacked; or email transmission may not be encrypted when corresponding back and forth. We remain mindful of this and ensure that we do everything in our capability to protect your personal information.
How we use and process your information.
After we have received your information, there are a few ways in which we might use it to ensure we give you the best possible service. They include:
To help us to identify you when you contact us,
To contact you to make, confirm, cancel, or reschedule appointments,
To respond to any queries or complaints that you raise.
If we have a legal obligation to use or disclose information about you for instance, where we are ordered by a court or regulatory authority,
For any other purpose to which you agree.
We will not disclose your information to any third party except in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
How we keep your information safe and who has access to it.
We want you to know that we will never sell or pass on your personal information to third parties for their own purposes.
The information we have from you, which will usually be your name and email address which you provide via this website, will be stored with the sign-up or email provider.
How we retain your information.
The information we have from you, which will usually be your name and email address which you provide via this website, will be stored with the sign-up or email provider.
How we will communicate with you.
We will communicate with you via email, telephone or message or a face-to-face appointment. Your preferences will be recorded if you decide to proceed with counselling/therapy.
Visiting third party websites.
This website contains links to other websites that we believe may be of interest to you. This Privacy Policy only applies to our website, so if you link to another website, we recommend you read the privacy policy of that website before sharing any personal or financial data.
We do not provide any personally identifiable client Personal Data to any advertisers or third-party websites.
We exclude all liability for loss that you may incur when using any third-party websites.
COOKIES
Like most websites, we use ‘cookies’ to help us improve how we create, and how you use, our site. Cookies mean that a website will remember you and can obtain an overall view of visitor habits and volumes to our website. They can make interacting with a website faster and easier.
Cookies are small text files stored on your computer by websites that you visit. They are used by most websites to make them work efficiently, to make controls respond properly and to provide information to owners of web sites, or third parties. The cookies stored by our site cannot be used to identify you personally.
Any non-personal information such as IP address, pages accessed, will only be used to determine how many individuals use my site, how many people visit on a regular basis, which pages are most popular, and which are least popular. This information does not tell me anything about who you are or where you live, it is simply to monitor and improve my service.
If you want to know how to disable the use of cookies on your device, visit aboutcookies.org. Please note that if you turn off the use of cookies on the website, you are likely to find your browsing experience significantly degraded, and you may not be able to use some of the products or services on our website without cookies.
What your rights are.
We want to make sure you are in control of how we use and keep your information.
You have the right to:
be told how your personal information will be used.
request a copy of the information we hold about you.
update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong.
change your communication preferences at any time.
ask us to remove your personal information from our records (in writing).
request an electronic copy of your personal information be sent to you (in writing)
raise a concern or complaint about the way in which your information is being used.
If you would like any more information or have any comments about our Privacy Policy, please email us at enquiries@greenspacetherapyandcounselling.co.uk
We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time without notice to you, in which case, we will publish the amended version on the Website. You confirm that we shall not be liable to you or any third party for any change to this Privacy Policy from time to time. It is your responsibility to check regularly to determine whether this Privacy Policy has changed.
You can ask us for a copy of this Privacy Policy, any amended Privacy Policy and access to the Personal Data that we hold about you by emailing us at enquiries@greenspacetherapyandcounselling.co.uk
This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Data we hold about individuals. It does not apply to information we hold about companies and other organisations.
We aim to keep the Personal Data we hold about you accurate and up to date. If you tell us that we are holding any inaccurate Personal Data about you, we will delete it or correct it promptly. Please email us at enquiries@greenspacetherapyandcounselling.co.uk to update your Personal Data.
You can find out more on the Information Commissioner’s Office website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/