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 full name, telephone number and email address. 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 one month of the original enquiry. 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 I believe you may cause harm to yourself or another person.
- if I am required to do so by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, or a court of law.
- if information comes to light regarding acts of terrorism, drug trafficking, child protection issues, or other matters where I have a legal obligation to report this to the appropriate authorities.
I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely either on paper or on my pin-protected smartphone, and are not shared with any third party.
I will keep handwritten notes of each session. As with any other information held on paper, these are kept in a locked filing cabinet to which only I have the key.
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 transfer the information to a note in your paper file. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after three months if it is not important. If necessary, I will print out any important emails for filing.
After counselling has ended
Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for six months 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.