• Your privacy is very 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 from the initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:

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1. Why am I able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for.​

2. Whether you have to provide it to me.

3. How long I store your information.

4. Whether there are other recipients of your personal information.

5. Whether I intend to transfer it to another country.

6. Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling

7. Understand your data protection rights.

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• I am happy to have a conversation regarding any questions you might have about my data protection policy, and you can contact me via email address which is found at the bottom of this page.

• ‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person or organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is myself, Gemma Hinks.

• I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (Registration reference: ZB999004).

• My full contact details are at the bottom of the page.

 

The Type of personal information I collect and process are:

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• Your name and date of birth.

• Your email address.

• Your address and contact information.

• Next of kin contact details

• GP surgery name and contact details

• Your bank or payment details, where you’ve provided these to make a payment.

• Any queries or requests you’ve submitted to me.

• Any other personal information you’ve provided to me.

 

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.

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• The GDPR States that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I will explained these below:

• If you have 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 have shared with me appropriately. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories per personal information is that it is for the provision of health treatment (in this case, counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between you and I).​

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How I use your information

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Initial contact 

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When you contact me with an inquiry about my counselling services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your inquiry. This will include your name and contact details, email address, home address and phone number, date of birth and next of kin details.

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Alternatively, your GP or both other health professionals may send me your details when making a referral, or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when inquiring on your behalf. If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 2 weeks of your initial contact. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please just let me know.

 

While you are accessing counselling 

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Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential, as per the terms of our therapeutic contract with each other.

That confidentiality will only be broken if:

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1. If you tell me you are going to harm yourself or another individual.

2. If you tell me a child or vulnerable adult is at risk of harm or abuse.

3. If you share information about a serious crime such as money laundering, drug trafficking or terrorism.

4. If I am legally compelled by a court of law.

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I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a password-protected laptop and Google Drive account and not shared with a third party.

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I will keep notes of each session on Hinks Headspace Counselling and Psychotherapy Services google drive which is password protected.

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For security reasons, I do not retain text messages for more than 2 months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message, I will add it to the personal data kept on the password-protected laptop or on the password protected google drive.

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Any email correspondence will be deleted after 6 months if it is not deemed important. If necessary, I will retain any important emails or attachments in your personal records on my password-protected laptop.

 

After Counselling has ended

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Once counselling has ended, your records will be kept for 5 years from the end of our contract with each other and will be securely destroyed by shredding any hard copies and permanently deleting any files or digital files held. If, for any reason, you wish for me to delete this sooner, please let me know.

 

Your data protection rights

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Under data protection law, you have the following rights:

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• Your right of access – You have the right to ask me for copies of your personal information.

• Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask me to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate.

• You also have the right to ask me to complete information you think is incomplete.

• Your right to erasure – you have the right to ask me to erase your personal details in certain circumstances.

• Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask me to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

• Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

• Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that I transfer the personal information you give me to another organisation, or to you in certain circumstances.

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You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, I have one month to respond.

 

You can read more about your rights at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters 

 

If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint 

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office,  

Wycliffe House,        

Water Lane,            

Wilmslow,            

Cheshire,            

SK9 5AF

Helpline Number: 0303 123 1113

ICO Website: https://www.ico.org.uk