Vanessa Vaughan Counselling

Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice was last updated on May 8, 2024 and applies to citizens and legal permanent residents of the United Kingdom

Your privacy is very important to me, and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and only used for the purpose it was given to me.  I adhere to current data protection regulation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the UK 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.

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy, and you can contact me by email at [email protected]

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

I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and my registration number is ZB679449.

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 consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).

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 may include the details you enter into the contact form on my website, the information you give me in an email or during a telephone conversation or the information you leave me on an answer phone recording. Alternatively, The Eaves or 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 one month.  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 if there is a serious concern for your or someone else’s safety; if there is a legal obligation relating to your involvement in, or knowledge of, a serious crime; if there is a court order requesting information about you; or if it is essential to prevent a serious and imminent threat to either public health or national security. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will collect personal details from you as follows; your name, age, date of birth, address, who you live with, telephone number and permission/refusal to leave a voicemail or text, email address, previous history of emotional support, details of any relevant mental or physical health issues and medication, details of any other relevant health professionals whose care you may be under and current emotional concerns. I will also collect GP contact details (for use with your permission), and next of kin name and contact details for emergency contact if something were to happen to you (on my premises).

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.  I use encrypted devices and a locked filing cabinet.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely in a locked filing cabinet.

I will keep brief anonymised written notes of each session, these are kept in a locked filing cabinet separately from your personal details.

I may also store your phone number (with your first name and last initial only) in my mobile phone which is encrypted, and your number will be deleted within one month after counselling has ended.

I use a paper diary for appointments where only your first name will be written. This diary is kept separately from your other information.

In line with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, I attend clinical supervision regularly to ensure that I am working ethically and in the best interests of all my clients. My supervisor is bound by the same ethical code as me and I will only refer to you by your first name during our work.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than one month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will transfer it to a paper document. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after one month if it is not important. If necessary, I will transfer it to a paper document.

In the event of my death or incapacity through ill-health, a colleague will have access to your contact details so that you can be informed.

After counselling has ended

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

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 legal or professional tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that such third parties comply with GDPR regulation.

Your consent and your rights

When we start working together, I will ask if you consent to me using your personal data as described in this statement.

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/for-the-public/

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 to my email at [email protected].

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by emailing me at [email protected].  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 https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third-party service, WordPress (hosted by HeartInternet) 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 WordPress 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 Google’s privacy notice here https://policies.google.com/privacy. 

I use WordPress as the content management system for my website.

Like most websites I use cookies to help the site work more efficiently – find out about my use of Cookies.

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. 

Text