Data Protection & Privacy Policy

Any personal data provided by you to Jenny Poirier Counselling through any means (verbal, written, in electronic form, or by your use of our website) will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the services you have requested from us.

Introduction

Jenny Poirier is the ‘data controller’, registered with the ICO and is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the following in order to learn more about our privacy policy and our information collection and use practices.

This policy only applies to data collected by Jenny Poirier, and via our own forms and website. Third party agents, and websites which are linked to ours, are not covered by this policy. If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions on our use of the information, please contact Jenny Poirier using our contact form.

When you request counselling with Jenny Poirier, or otherwise provide your personal details to us, you will be asked to consent to our processing of your data under the terms of this policy.

What information do we collect?

Counselling Requests – Registering with us to request access to our counselling service can be done via email, contact form or by phone. Our request process involves providing us with your name, date of birth, address, telephone numbers and email address and GP details. We may also request information on your availability, therapeutic issues, and other details which we deem relevant to processing your request.

Initial Assessment Appointments – At an initial appointment we ask about your current personal, social, medical and financial circumstances. We may also ask about your background and family history, as well as the issues which are affecting you now. We require this information so that we can decide about our offer of counselling to you, and to manage the service we provide to you.

Emergency Contact- we ask for next of kin details or an emergency contact, to be used in case of emergency only, such as a client becoming unwell in a session)

Website – We use Webhealer to collect anonymous data relating to user behaviour and ‘web traffic’ statistics. The collection and use of this data is subject to their own Privacy Policies.

Cookies - Click on use of Cookies for further information

Other Forms – The information you give us on our forms (including all enquiry and application forms) may include your name, postal address, email address, phone number and other messages to us.

What do we use your information for?

We use information held about you in the following ways:

-To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from us.

-To offer suitable counselling appointments.

-To notify you about changes to your appointments and other changes to our services.

-To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling with us.

-To improve our service to ensure that it is provided in the most effective manner for you and for us.

-To administer our service, including the arrangement of appointments, and for financial control, data analysis, research, statistical purposes.

-It is a legal requirement to keep brief notes of sessions and this enables us to maintain continuity and monitor progress in our counselling work.

What information do we share?

We will not share any information about you with other organisations or people, except in the following situations:

Consent – Jenny Poirier may share your information with professionals or others whom you have requested or agreed we should contact.

Serious harm – Jenny Poirier may share your information with the relevant authorities such as your GP if we have reason to believe that this may prevent serious harm being caused to you or another person.

Compliance with law – Jenny Poirier may share your information where we are required to by UK law or by the regulations and other rules to which we are subject.

In case of the counsellor being incapacitated – Jenny Poirrier has a clinical will to manage closing business and onward referral of clients in the event of being incapacitated. This means a trusted colleague would notify my clients in the case of this unlikely event and would have access to their contact data for this purpose only.

How do we keep your information safe?

All information you provide to us is stored as securely as possible. All paper forms and correspondence are kept in a locked filing cabinet on our premises. Emails are kept on a password protected lap top for the duration of counselling then deleted. Relevant information may be printed and stored with counselling notes.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your information , we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us via email, including forms completed on our website which are transmitted by email; any transmission is at your own risk.

Client notes and other documentation are destroyed 7 years after the end of counselling in line with the terms of my professional indemnity insurance.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us to provide a copy of the information held by us in our records. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. If you would like to do this, please contact Jenny Poirier using our contact form.

You may withdraw your consent for us to hold and process your data at any time. However, if you do this while actively receiving counselling with Jenny Poirier your counselling would have to end as it is a legal requirement to keep notes. You can withdraw your consent by submitting our Consent Withdrawal Form, or by contacting Jenny Poirier.

Changes to this policy

We may edit this policy from time to time so we advise that you check the policy from time to time.

18 January 2021