Privacy Policy

Secure storage

I make every effort to keep all information confidential. For me to be able to fulfil my responsibilities as a counsellor, I will need to record personal information about you. This information includes your name, address, contact details, and GP practice. Under an identifying code, I will also note ‘assessment information’, that is, relevant medical information and aspects of your social and family history that you choose to share with me. This information will be retained in separate locations (keeping your name and contact details separate from the assessment notes) either in password-protected files, on a password-protected PC with virus protection software installed, or in a lockable cabinet.

Your personal information will be held for three years after the cessation of our counselling relationship, except where there is a mutually agreed decision to retain it for longer or where I believe that it is in my best professional interests to do so. Your contact details alone will be shared in exceptional circumstances with my supervisor or other named agent if I am incapacitated so that they can contact you to explain the situation. The details of this arrangement are set out in my clinical will.

I will use your contact details to contact you. Other personal data such as your name, address and/or date of birth will be used to verify your identity if there is a need to contact your G.P. or a request for access to personal data from yourself or your representative or legitimate legal instrument such as a court order. I will hold your name and telephone number on my mobile phone until our counselling relationship ends, and then I will delete it from my contact list. However, the phone may retain summary records of calls made to or from your number (date and duration) and any recorded messages for three years. If we agree to communicate by text or email, these records may be kept for the same duration as your counselling notes. My mobile phone is a smartphone and could, therefore, also have your texts, email and email address available on it. The phone is encrypted and securely locked using biometric data.

Online work

Where our work may be done online, I will take all technical and operational measures reasonably possible to ensure that our video sessions and emails are secure and private.

Sharing Information

I will also record notes of each therapy session using an identifying code. These notes will be a brief factual record of the session. This set of notes will include any agreements made about, for example, cancelled sessions or changes to how the therapy is conducted and are held in a lockable cabinet. These notes may be shared under the identifying code with my supervisor, counselling professional body or similar to maintain professional standards and aid my professional development. These notes will also be held for three years after the cessation of counselling, except where I agree with you to retain them for longer or where I believe that it is in my best professional interests to do so.

Legal exceptions

The information disclosed during counselling is confidential. However, there are legal exceptions, for example:
• On receipt of a request from you or your representative, and where the release of the notes is not judged by me as likely to cause you significant harm or harm to another person
• Where there is a specific legal requirement for me to do so
• Where there is an ethical duty for me to do, for example, to avoid serious harm to yourself or another person, including the safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults
• If you reveal knowledge of terrorist activity.

Your Right to Access

You have the right to ask for a copy of your personal information, free of charge, in an electronic or paper format. You also have the right to ask me to amend or change any incorrect information about you.

Right to be Forgotten

You have the right to ask me to erase any information that I hold about you. This includes your personal information no longer relevant to original purposes, or if you wish to withdraw consent. In all cases and when considering such requests, these rights are obligatory unless it is information that I have a legal obligation to retain.
If I become aware of a situation where a third party may have accidentally or maliciously obtained your personal information, I will notify you within three days. If you are concerned about how your data is held, please discuss this with me. You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are still unhappy.

This Privacy Policy explains how your personal information is collected, stored, and shared, aligning with EU/UK General Data Protection Regulations. Kim Tainio Counselling is registered with the ICO.
Kim Tainio April 2023