PRIVACY NOTICE
This privacy notice sets out how Lynn Johnston, counsellor, uses and protects any information that you give when you contact us by phone, email or by visiting this website or during counselling or clinical supervision. We keep our privacy notice under regular review and will update this document if we undertake any new or amended data collection or processing. We recommend you check back frequently to see any updates or changes to this privacy policy. This privacy notice was last updated on 29th August 2018.
Lynn Johnston, counsellor, (referred to as 'we', 'us' or 'your counsellor') acknowledges that your privacy is very important. We take care to maintain client confidentiality in accordance with Counselling and Psychotherapy industry guidelines & best practices. Lynn Johnston, counsellor, is registered with the Information Commissioner and is required to be open & transparent about how, why & when your personal data is gathered, recorded, stored and used. Also, how and when it is deleted or removed.
For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), which enacts the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Lynn Johnston, counsellor, is a Controller and a Processor of personal and special categories of personal information.
Confidentiality:
In accordance with BACP, BPsS & NCS ethical frameworks and best practice guidelines, everything you say in counselling or supervision sessions remains between you and the counsellor, with the exception of:
* Where you give explicit consent for the confidentiality to be broken
* If you inform your Counsellor that you have evidence of current child abuse
* If you indicate a serious and imminent intention to harm yourself or others
* If you are involved in or know of any terrorist activities
* If you are involved in or know of any drug trafficking or money laundering
* Where your counsellor has received a Court Order to appear and give evidence
A counsellor’s work is subject to their own clinical supervision. Anything you say during your counselling session will be confidential to your counsellor and the clinical supervisor (details of the current clinical supervisor are available on request, see Contacting Us below).
To ensure good practice, we will discuss the counselling work with our supervisor on an anonymous basis to preserve confidentiality.
What information do we collect?:
Contact & personal information. We record your contact & personal information only in order to provide our counselling service to you. We do not use your information for marketing and we do not pass your information to any third party for any reason, except as noted above.
In order to provide a counselling or supervision service to you the information we collect may include, but is not limited to, the following:
Your name
Your address
Your date of birth,
telephone number(s)
email address(es)
gender
ethnicity
religion
details of children under the age of 18
health and history
next of kin and other family member details
GP details
any other information that may be relevant to your referral.
Therapeutic information. We follow the BACP guidelines which require that our counselling notes are 'adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary'. We will record the session number, date, time and a brief note as an 'aide memoir' only.
Third party information. When you use our website www.lynnjohnston.co.uk some information may be obtained by third parties such as Google Analytics. This information is anonymous and gathered only to ensure efficient running of, and access to, the website. When we recommend the use of online services or video communication services to conduct your counselling, the companies providing those services may seek to obtain and use your information in order to provide those services. You should contact them directly to find out about their Privacy Policies.
Web site information. We will only ask for contact information through our website www.lynnjohnston.co.uk enquiry form and will NOT ask for personal details such as current issues or medical history. We also ask you not to use our website to communicate any further sensitive or personal information at any time.
Accuracy. We aim to keep our information up to date during the counselling process and may ask you for additional or new information as required from time to time. If
you think that any of the information we hold is incorrect or incomplete, please let us know and we will include the revised information as appropriate. Once the counselling contract is completed we will not seek to update the contact information we hold, however, should you pass new contact information to us we will record this.
Storage & retention:
Contracted clients. Your contact & personal information may be recorded and stored electronically or manually and will be retained for up to seven years from the end of your counselling contract with us. Electronic information will be stored only on encrypted devices and/or cloud services that comply with appropriate provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Handwritten notes will be kept securely in a locked filing cabinet for a period of 7 years.
Non-contracted clients. Should you provide us with your contact or therapeutic information prior to an initial free consultation but subsequently choose not to follow this up or work with us at that time, your information will recorded, stored and used as for contracted clients but will be deleted after 3 months from our last contact with you.
Security. Appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures are in place to safeguard and secure your information which we ourselves hold. However you should be aware that personal information and data transmitted over the internet, sent by email or text, or given by phone is not secure. Information and documents whether as attachments or not, may be intercepted, lost, corrupted or accessed by third parties and conversations overheard. To ensure your online or phone session is confidential you will need to have access to a private computer and space for the duration of the session and will need to keep your password secure and ensure that your computer is kept up to date and has current virus protection. Lynn Johnston, counsellor, cannot be held responsible for any privacy issues relating to data loss beyond her control.
Social Media:
Lynn Johnston, counsellor, does not use social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc. for communication with clients or potential clients or for marketing and promotion of her practice. You should understand that it is our policy that Lynn Johnston, counsellor, and clients do not have 'dual relationships' or contact unrelated to their counselling sessions, and this includes on social media, which would be unethical and contravene the BACP ethical guidelines. Please do not try to contact us via social media, as we will not respond.
Contacting us:
Any questions, comments or requests regarding this privacy notice, our policies and our procedures around privacy and confidentiality are welcomed. Please address all such comment or enquiry to us by email to lynn@lynnjohnston.co.uk or by writing to us at our address:
The Old Chapel
Pentney Lane
Pentney
Norfolk
PE32 1JE
We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading, inaccurate or inappropriate. If you remain unhappy with our response to your concerns you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners’ Office at www.ico.org.uk or write to them:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
