Privacy, Data Protection and GDPR
In order to deliver a counselling service White Candle Counselling collects information you provide. This privacy policy governs the manner in which White Candle Counselling uses, maintains and discloses information collected from clients using our services. This privacy policy applies to the practice; website and services offered by White Candle Counselling whether they are online, by telephone or in person.
Personal Information Collected
In most cases the data we process is provided by you, the client. This may be provided by email, telephone, or our website or during a counselling session. If you are referred to us by a third party we may also have information they have provided about you.
Some examples of the typical data we may process are listed below:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Address
- Contact phone number and/or email address
- Presenting problem
- Counselling history
- General Practitioners details
- Medical conditions relevant to counselling
- Medications
- Client aims and expectations relating to counselling
Sharing Your Data
Confidentiality and privacy are very important in the counselling relationship. All information you disclose to White Candle Counselling is kept in the strictest confidence with the following exceptions:
- You give informed consent for information to be passed on (GP etc).
- You disclose information regarding child protection issues.
- You disclose information about money laundering, acts of terrorism, or drug trafficking.
- There is a serious risk of harm to self or others.
- White Candle Counselling is required to disclose information to a UK court of law, if court ordered.
Should a situation arise where confidentiality cannot be maintained this would be discussed with you first where possible.
We will never sell your data or use it for any purpose we have not agreed.
Storing Your Data
Data security is very important to us, and to protect your data we have taken all reasonable measures to safeguard and secure data we have collected from you.
Notes pertaining to session content and personal details contained with the initial assessment form are kept securely in a locked cabinet.
Electronic data is stored securely both locally at our office, and via a cloud service. Access to your personal information is restricted to our staff as required in performance of duties as previously set out above.
As per White Candle Counselling insurance policy, personal data is kept for 7 years. We will keep your personal data whilst you are a client to allow us to provision counselling services. If you are not a current customer you are free to exercise your rights as a data subject and request usage restrictions or erasure of processing, by contacting the Data Controller (Lucy Sumner White Candle Counselling)
Disposing of Your Data
All enquiries are destroyed or erased after 3 months. All text messages and contact numbers are erased 3 months following the cessation of therapy.
White Candle Counselling holds session notes for up to 7 years following the cessation of therapy. This is so we have a reference should you decide to return to therapy in the future and to comply with our insurance policy.
Your Rights as a Data Subject
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you are granted certain rights as a data subject. Should you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact our Data Protection Officer (Lucy Sumner). Such requests are dependent on you providing the needed information and also subject to confirmation of your identify. All requests will be actioned without undue delay.
Right to Access: We can confirm what information we hold about you and how it is processed.
Right to Rectification: We can rectify any inaccurate personal information we may hold concerning you.
Right to Erasure: We can delete any personal data we hold concerning you.
Right to Restriction of Processing: We can restrict how your personal data is processed, such as removing you from our direct marketing activities.
Right to Data Portability: We can provide you with your personal data in a commonly used machine-readable format and have the right to transmit this data to another controller without hindrance from us.
Right to Object: You can object at any time to the processing of your personal data.
Requests to exercise any of the above rights should be made in writing to the Data Controller. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018, the data ‘Controller’ is Lucy Sumner, White Candle Counselling, 10 Russet Avenue, Appleton, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 5RR. lucy@whitecandlecounselling.co.uk 07497 839495