Confidentiality & Data Protection
Your privacy is very important to me and I commit to treating all personal information about you with care and respect. This privacy policy explains how I do that.
Contact details and personal data
Prior to our first session I will ask you to complete a contact and consent form. This asks for Your name /Date of Birth/Address/Telephone number/Email address/Relevant medical details/Prescribed medication/Reason for seeking support/ others involved in your care and Emergency contact details.
This contact and consent form will be kept in paper form. If it is emailed to me I will print it out and delete the email. Your personal details from your contact form will be kept separately from any other notes i.e. the notes I make during sessions.
All paper information will be kept securely in a locked room. Paper notes will be held for seven years following our final session. This is in line with guidance provided by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
After this time they will be destroyed.
Phone
The only information stored on my phone is your contact name and text messages. Only your first name and initial of your surname will be stored to identify your telephone number. This enables me to contact you in case of emergencies.
I keep texts to a minimum and primarily for appointment confirmation. I delete them within a few days. If there is information in a text message that I need to keep, I make a paper note and keep the paper note in a secure location.
Your email address and correspondence will be stored in my email account. I will use email to send non personal information such as appointment confirmation. Any reports or letters will be sent via encrypted email or by post if you consent.
Following your final session, all electronic correspondence will be erased one month after the final session.
Website
None of your personal information will be stored on my website.
Invoices
Invoices will be stored for a period of five years as determined by HMRC.
Confidentiality
I do not share the details of our therapy sessions. There are three exceptions to this:
1. If you ask me to
If you give informed consent for me to share your information I will do so
2. Supervision
As a Clinical Psychologist I am required by my regulating body to have supervision with another psychologist. Supervision is to ensure good professional standards are maintained. Any client discussed during supervision is referred to only by their first name and my supervisor is bound by
the same ethics of confidentiality.
3. Risk of harm
If I believe that there is a risk of serious harm to an individual (either yourself or another person) I have a duty to break confidentiality and share my concerns with the relevant person or organisation. If this applies, I will do my best to discuss this with you first, although this may not always be feasible.