Brightside Counselling – PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy notice explains that the personal information that is collected about my customers, including information I collect when customers use my website or otherwise contact me, how and why we process that personal information and the rights of individuals in respect of the personal information I hold.

In storing and processing personal information I am regulated under European and UK data protection laws and I am responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

What personal information I use:

  • personal information collected for clients including clients’ names, addresses and contact details, email address, medication, disabilities, GP address and emergency contact;
  • for customers using Brightside Counselling website;
  • Profile data such as customer usernames and passwords, preferences and feedback;
  • Technical data such as internet protocol address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices used to access the website;
  • Usage data such as information about how customers use our website which may be collected through the use of cookies, server logs and similar technologies;
  • Cookie policy First-party cookies are cookies that are set by the site domain listed in the address bar. Third-party cookies come from other domain sources that have items, such as ads or images, embedded on the page. Depending on your browser, you can control which types of cookies you allow. Google also adds a cookie as we use this for anonymised tracking, to see what content is popular. At no point do I know who you are.

This privacy notice relates to:

By continuing to use Brightside Counselling website, I assume that you accept to receive all cookies from my website. If you wish to change your cookie policy, you can do by turning cookies off in your web browser

  • Other personal information that customers or business contacts may submit to me such as correspondence or personal information forms that they may complete.

My website may include links to other websites. Clicking on those links may allow the owners to collect or share data about you. We do not control those third party websites and are not responsible for those entities’ compliance with data protection laws.

I use the personal information I hold to:

  • To gain information about the customer, for emergency purposes and knowledge.
  • Respond to customer and other business enquiries.
  • Improve my customer service and relationships.
  • Communicate with each other by text, telephone, video link or email.
  • Taking clients notes and securely holding these for seven years.
  • Keeping a record of the date, time and place of meeting.
  • Taking payment by cheque or Bacs.

I may disclose your personal information:

  • To a court of law, if I am summoned.
  • I cannot be legally bound to confidentiality.
  • My limitations to confidentiality include;
  • money laundering;
  • drug trafficking;
  • terrorism;
  • suicidal intent;
  • harm to self or others;
  • planned violence;
  • planned future child abuse;
  • formerly committed child abuse;
  • experiencing child abuse;
  • expecting to experience future child abuse;
  • As a member of the British Association for counselling and psychotherapy, I agree as a legal requirement to break confidentiality when I am using my best judgement;
  • Where possible I will inform you of my legal obligation when breaking confidentiality;
  • I may need to seek outside assistance from the social services, police, school, and emergency services.
  • The APA’s ethical code of conduct for therapists exempts confidentiality when;
  • The client is an imminent threat and violent;
  • threat towards themselves or others;
  • there is a billing situation which requires a condoned disclosure;
  • Sharing information is necessary to facilitate clients care across multiple providers;
  • sharing information is necessary to treat the client.

I may also be required to share your personal data to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or protect our legal rights. This includes exchanging information with other professionals and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

All website financial transactions are handled through Brightside Counselling payment services provider, Secure Trading, HSBC. You can view the GDPR privacy policy at https://www.hsbc.co.uk  I will share information only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments that you make via my website or via Bacs.

How long personal information will be kept:

I hold customers’ personal information for seven years from the ending date.

Reasons we collect and use personal information:

I rely on several legal bases for the processing of personal information.  These include where I need that personal information to comply with my contractual or other legal obligations.

Consequences of me using your personal information:

My processing of your personal information is to keep you safe at all times, it allows us to decide whether to enter into a working contract with each other to access my counselling service, to perform that contract and manage it in the interest of my business and to manage my internal operations. I cannot do any of these things without that information.

Your rights:

Under data protection laws customers and business contacts in respect of which I hold personal information have several important rights which may be exercised without charge by me. In summary, those include the right to:

  • Access to the individual’s personal information and to certain other supplementary information;
  • require me to correct any mistakes in personal information which I hold;
  • require the erasure of personal information in certain situations;
  • receive the personal information which has been provided to me, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit that information to a third party in certain situations;
  • object at any time to processing of the individual’s personal information for direct marketing;
  • object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning the individual or similarly significantly affect that person;
  • object in certain other situations to our continued processing of the individual’s personal information;
  • otherwise restrict our processing of the individual’s personal information in certain circumstances.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation which is available on its website.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

  • email me at info@brightsidecounselling.co.uk;
  • let me have enough information to identify you;
  • let me have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
  • let me know the information to which your request relates.

How to complain:

I hope that I can resolve any query or concern you raise about me using your information.

You also have the right to complain to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy by following this link, professional_conduct@bacp.co.uk or by telephone on: 01455 883300

How to contact me:

Please contact me if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information, I hold about you.

If you wish to contact me, please send an email to info@brightsidecounselling.co.uk. 

Changes to this privacy policy:

Any changes that I may make to my privacy policy in the future, I will add to this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.