Bethany Thornton Counselling Privacy Notice
1. This privacy policy applies to all data processed by Bethany Thornton Counselling, including this website, bethanythorntoncounselling.co.uk.
2. At Bethany Thornton Counselling I am committed to protecting your privacy. All personal data is collected, processed and used lawfully and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
3. For the purpose of the DPA and GDPR I am the data controller and I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for this purpose. Any enquiry regarding the collection or processing of your data should be addressed to Bethany Thornton at my address: 18 Canberra Drive, Stafford, ST16 3PX.
Information Collection, Storage and Disposal
Initial Enquiry for Counselling
4. When you contact me, I will need to know your name, e-mail address and/or phone number, and reason for contact so that I can respond to your enquiry. Your details are strictly confidential and therefore will be stored securely and will not be shared with anyone else, unless required to do so by law (see legal reasons in section 6 below). Your contact details will be stored for a maximum of 3 weeks – if after this time you have decided not to continue with your enquiry and/or arrange an initial session your contact details will be deleted.
Initial Session Registration
5. When you come to your initial session I will ask you to complete a hand-written registration form which includes:
- Your name
- Address
- Date of birth
- Phone number(s)
- Email address
- GP details
- Whether you have a disability or learning difficulty.
I will also ask you to sign an agreement which explains the terms and conditions of my work as a counsellor.
After each session I will make brief session notes.
All of this information is stored on paper only, in locked storage and only I have access to this information for the purposes of counselling.
6. I will always treat your personal data with the utmost care and will not disclose it to anyone, except when required to do so for the lawful reasons of preventing:
- A crime
- Abuse of a child
- Serious physical harm to yourself
- Serious physical harm to others
- Or if required to do so by any court or law.
7. For legal purposes, your data will be stored for 7 years after your last counselling session, after which it will be securely destroyed.
Technical Data
8. This website has a secure certificate (SSL) that uses encryption. which means that data entered to and displayed from the website and your device is secured.
9. No personal data is stored on my website.
10. I use Google Analytics to monitor the effectiveness of my website but have applied IP Masking so that no personal data is collected.
11. My website uses cookies solely to make the website work – they do not collect any personal data.
12. My website contains links to other websites of interest. These websites should have their own privacy policies and you should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question. I do not accept any responsibility or liability for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.
13. The transmission of information via email is not completely secure. Although I will do my best to protect your personal data, I cannot guarantee the security of data while you are transmitting it to my email address. Any such transmission is at your own risk. Once I have received your personal data, I will use strict procedures and security features to store it securely.
Your Rights
14. You have the following rights:
- To be informed of what information I hold.
- To see the information I hold about you.
- To rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
- To request your personal information be erased (although I can decline whilst the information is needed for me to practice lawfully and competently).