Vital Minds Counselling Privacy Policy

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This policy is to provide you with important information about how I process your personal data. This includes details of what personal information I hold, how I store it, what I do with it, why I hold it and for how long.

The contents of this document apply to current, past and prospective clients of Vital Minds Counselling. 

The ‘summary information’ section provides some general information about what I do with your personal data. 

To provide you with the service of Vital Minds Counselling, I must hold and process personal data. I use this information to hold on record in case of the need to refer for any safeguarding issues related to Child Protection, harm to self or others and dangers to national security. Client notes are also kept together.  Client notes are held to keep fluidity of sessions and to document any concerns.  You have the right to see your notes at any time. 

Your data is held in hard copy only and stored in a locked cabinet on my premises. 

Access is only made available to Tanika Farmer.

Covid-19 NHS Track and Trace is now also included in this policy until the government tells us this is no longer a necessary measure.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling service run smoothly.  These details are kept on a secure electronic device and are not shared with any third party. Brief notes are kept from each session; these are generally anonymised using only initials and kept in a secure, locked drawer on my premises. 

For security reasons I do not retain text messages/emails for longer than one week unless there is relevant information that is pertinent to the counselling work. 

Once counselling has ended your records will be retained for 10 years from the end of our contract together.  After this point your personal information will be securely destroyed. 

There may be an occasion whereby we agree that a referral to another service or therapist would be appropriate.  On such occasions; I will seek your permission to share your information. 

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and you can read more about how your personal information is used and your rights at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters. 

Under the General Data Protection Regulation; you have eight user rights in relation to your personal data:

1. Right to be informed

2. Right of access

3. Right to rectification

4. Right to erasure

5. Right to restrict processing

6. Right to data portability

7. Right to object

8. Right to avoid automated decision-making; including profiling

If at any time you wish to exercise your rights under the Data Protection Act or General Data Protection Regulation, please do not hesitate to contact me.