Echo Forest Therapy Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 2022

Privacy Notice

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 initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including: 

• Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for 

• Whether you have to provide it to me 

• How long I store it for 

• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information 

• Whether I intend to transfer it to another country, 

• Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and 

• Your data protection rights. 

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via kangli@echoforesttherapy.co.uk

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

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office [Insert registration number]. 

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

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 have explained these below: If you have had 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 may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).

How I use your information

Initial contact: 

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include: your name, your address, telephone number, email address, doctor’s contact details and emergency contact. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within ten working days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

While you are accessing counselling: 

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken because of legal obligation and exceptional circumstances. These include if I heard disclosures of: acts of terrorism, money laundering, drug-trafficking, serious risk of harm to self, risk of harm to others, safeguarding and child protection issues. Wherever possible, I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues or legal reasons that prevent this. 

I keep either a digital or paper record of your personal details to support our work together. I write brief notes after each session, but I do not include any identifiable details. These notes, and any other documentation relating to you, are stored securely, either in my password protected work computer/laptop or locked cabinet in my private office.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than three months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will save it either on my password protected work computer/laptop or on paper file in locked cabinet. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after three months if it is not important. If necessary I will save them either on my password protected work computer/laptop or on paper file in locked cabinet for limited amount of time by law. 

After counselling has ended: 

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for seven years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

Will data be shared?

Although I treat all information disclosed as confidential, there are circumstances in which your personal data may be shared with other agencies. Good therapeutic practice requires me to use appropriate regular supervisory support and any details my Clinical Supervisor receives are also treated as confidential. However, there are limitations to confidentiality and, in the rare event of having to break confidentiality, I would use the following criteria: If, in my opinion, a client is a danger to themselves or others. If, in my opinion, a young person under the age of 18 or a vulnerable adult is at risk of harm. Under a legal requirement e.g. the client is involved in terrorist activity or drug money laundering. If ordered by a court of law.

Your rights

I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. You can read more about your rights at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters

If I do hold information about you I will: give you a description of it and where it came from; tell you why I am holding its, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision; tell you who it could be disclosed to; let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form. You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you. To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to kangli@echoforesttherapy.co.uk. 

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures. 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 ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Data security

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. Any record I have of you, such as the Counselling Agreement, Client Information Form / Assessment Form, and any notes from our sessions are stored in a locked cabinet that only I can access. Relevant electronic information are saved in my password protected work computer/laptop that only I can access. 

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website [echoforesttherapy.co.uk], I use a third party service GoDaddy (an internet domain register and web hosting company) to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow GoDaddy to make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website. I use Google Analytics so that I can continually improve my service to you. You can read GoDaddy’s privacy notice here [https://www.godaddy.com/en-uk/agreements/privacy]. I use GoDaddy’s website builder as the content management system for my website - find out about GoDaddy’s Legal Agreements and Policies including data protection here: [https://www.godaddy.com/en-uk/legal/agreements]

Like most websites I use cookies to help the site work more efficiently - find out about the use of cookies [https://www.godaddy.com/en-uk/legal/agreements/cookie-policy]. No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.