Introduction

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To provide you with the best service possible I need to hold your personal contact details and records of your therapy sessions. Please read this privacy notice carefully – it describes why and how I collect and use your personal data from initial point of contact to after therapy has ended. It also provides information about your rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR).  I keep this Privacy Notice under regular review. It was last updated on 09 February 2025.

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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 GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. I also adhere to the ethical guidelines regarding protecting client privacy and confidentiality set by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). 

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office [registration ref. ZB738055], which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. You can confirm my registration on their website here.

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I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me as detailed below.

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My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

 

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person may be identified. It does not include data that cannot be traced back to you (i.e. anonymous data). 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 collect and use your personal data

 

Initial contact: When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services, I will collect some brief information to help me process your enquiry. This will include your name, email address and/or contact telephone number. If you decide not to proceed, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within one month. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please let me know.

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While you are accessing therapy: 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 electronic device. This device is stored in a locked filing cabinet when not in my use. At the beginning of your first appointment, I will ask you to complete a personal details form containing the following information:

• Name

• Date of birth

• Contact details

• Emergency contact details

• GP contact details

 

This form will subsequently be scanned and stored electronically in my password-protected device and the hard copy will be shredded. 

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I will only contact your GP and/or emergency contact if it is necessary; should these circumstances arise, I would discuss this with you wherever possible. 

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Your mobile number will be in my mobile to facilitate our sessions, but not stored as a named contact. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than three months. If there is information contained in a text message that is relevant to our work, this will be copied into my session notes. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after three months if it is not important.

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Confidentiality: Rest assured that what is said in our sessions will be kept confidential. I am a Registered Member of the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and I abide by their professional code of ethics. Confidentiality will only be broken if there are legal or ethical obligations to disclose, for example: if you disclose abuse/neglect of a child or vulnerable adult; say something else that implies serious harm to yourself or others; or if a court of law requires me to disclose information. In the event that confidentiality must be broken I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

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Counsellors are required to have regular supervision support so I may discuss our work with my supervisor. This would be done using only your first name and no other identifying information. My supervisor is a counsellor who also abides by the BACP’s code of ethics regarding confidentiality.

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I keep brief notes of our therapy sessions for the purpose of assisting our work together. The notes help me to keep track of the issues that we are working on and they are for my use only. The notes do not include any personal details that could be used to identify you and they are stored securely and separately to your personal details form.

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After therapy has ended: There are reasons why counsellors are required to keep records after therapy has ended. For example, in the case of financial transactions personal information must be retained for as long as legally required in respect of tax or accounting purposes.

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Once our contracted therapy work has ended your records will be kept for seven years after your final session date. This timeframe is in line with current industry guidelines. Your therapy notes do not include any personal details that could be used to identify you and continue to be stored securely as above. Seven years after therapy has ended your therapy notes will be confidentially destroyed.

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Third party recipients of personal data

 

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

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I share a limited amount of personal data with third parties in order to provide therapy services to you and to fulfil legal obligations in respect of tax and accounting purposes. For example, my accountant is permitted access to my invoices and if you contact me to book an appointment, I may need to give your name to reception at the location where your appointment is due to take place. Where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out tasks, I have carefully selected which organisations I work with. I state that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted. I will never pass on your contact details to any third party organisations for the purposes of sales, marketing or research.

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If your appointments are paid for or arranged via a third party - for example your employer - the only information shared with the third party is your dates of attendance and non-attendance for invoicing and payment purposes. Details about what is discussed in your appointments will remain confidential and can only be shared if you give me your written consent to do so.

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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 ico.org.uk/your-data-matters. 

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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; and/or

• 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: claireballardtherapy@gmail.com

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Visitors to my website

 

By accessing the website, you are consenting to the information collection and use practices described in this privacy notice. Should you choose to contact me using the contact form on the website the data will only be held by me as described in this privacy notice.

The website uses cookies which you will be asked to accept or decline when you visit the site. I use Wix as the content management system for my website – find out more about Wix’s data protection here.

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Contacting me / Complaints

 

To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to: claireballardtherapy@gmail.com​

 

If you have a complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to contact me at claireballardtherapy@gmail.com If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO here.

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Changes to privacy notice

 

This privacy notice may be updated from time to time, so please check occasionally for any updates.