Privacy and cookie policy – Protecting your personal details on our website. Last updated: 1st April 2020.

Christine Bailey t/a Hants Counselling, whose place of business is Olive Villas, 6 Chequers Road, Basingstoke, Hants RG21 7PU, United Kingdom, knows that you care how information about you is used and shared and we appreciate your trust in us to do that carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy and forms part of our website terms and conditions (“Website Terms”). We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller.

By accepting our Website Terms or by visiting www.hantscounselling.co.uk (“the Website”) you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.  The Website is brought to you by Christine Bailey t/a Hants Counselling. Christine Bailey t/a Hants Counselling believes it is important to protect your Personal Data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) and we are committed to giving you a personalised service that meets your needs in a way that also protects your privacy. This policy explains how we may collect Personal Data about you. It also explains some of the security measures we take to protect your Personal Data, and tells you certain things we will do and not do. You should read this policy in conjunction with the Website Terms.

When we first obtain Personal Data from you, or when you take a new service or product from us, we will give you the opportunity to tell us if you do or do not want to receive information from us about other services or products (as applicable). You can normally do this by ticking a box on an application form or contract. You may change your mind at any time by emailing us at the address below.  Some of the Personal Data we hold about you may be ‘sensitive personal data’ within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998, for example, information about your health or ethnic origin.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. We know it’s long, but it contains important information about how we protect, use and process any personal information you give to us. We aim to be clear when we collect your data and not do anything with the data you wouldn’t reasonably expect.

WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The main pieces of information we collect are:

  • Name
  • Mobile phone number
  • Email address
  • Postal address

WHEN WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION

There are a few occasions when we might collect information from you. These include when:

  • You first call or email us to make an enquiry about our service; or to make an appointment to meet us
  • You give us this information face-to-face if we meet on any occasion
  • You attend your first session and sign our Therapy Agreement
  • You give us via a contact form, comment boxes or payment facility on our website.

We will not collect this information from you at any other time.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR INFORMATION

We collect information in the following ways:

  • When you give it to us DIRECTLY
  • When you contact us via our website

We do not collect your data in any other way. We will only ever get it from you.

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We are experienced counsellors / psychotherapists, fully trained in the importance of maintaining confidentiality. We go to great lengths to keep all your information safe. We invest in the appropriate resources to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We make sure we manage it in accordance with our legal responsibilities under applicable data protection laws.

However, no internet-based platform, including email, is 100% secure, so we cannot be held responsible for unauthorised or unintended access that is beyond our control. When we communicate via email, there is always the possibility that email platforms can be hacked; or email transmission may not be encrypted when corresponding back and forth. We remain mindful of this and ensure that we do everything in our capability to protect your personal information.

HOW WE USE AND PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION

After we have received your information, there are a few ways in which we might use it to ensure we give you the best possible service. They include:

  • To help us to identify you when you contact us
  • To contact you to make, confirm, cancel or reschedule appointments
  • To respond to any queries or complaints that you raise
  • If we have a legal obligation to use or disclose information about you for instance, where we are ordered by a court or regulatory authority
  • For any other purpose to which you agree

We will not disclose your information to any third party except in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

HOW WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE AND WHO HAS ACCESS TO IT

We want you to know that we will never sell or pass on your personal information to third parties for their own purposes.

As all therapists are required to keep appropriate records of their client work, your therapist may keep some brief notes of your sessions. The notes are fully anonymised and do not contain any of the information we collect from you, as detailed above. Anonymised notes are kept in a locked cabinet or on a password protected secure computer in accordance with data protection laws.

Each therapist keeps their own notes and they are never shared with anyone, even other therapists with whom they may work alongside.

HOW WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION

Our professional insurance requires that all our records are kept for 5 years after which time they will be destroyed.

HOW WE WILL COMMUNICATE WITH YOU

We will only ever communicate with you via telephone, email or text message, outside of our face to face sessions.

VISITING THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

This website contains links to other websites that we believe may be of interest to you. This Privacy Policy only applies to our website, so if you link to another website, we recommend you read the privacy policy of that website before sharing any personal or financial data.

We do not provide any personally identifiable client Personal Data to any advertisers or third-party websites.

We exclude all liability for loss that you may incur when using any third party websites.

COOKIES

Like most websites, we use ‘cookies’ to help us improve how we create, and how you use, our site. Cookies mean that a website will remember you and can obtain an overall view of visitor habits and volumes to our website. They can make interacting with a website faster and easier.

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer by websites that you visit. They are used by most websites in order to make them work efficiently, to make controls respond properly and to provide information to owners of web sites, or third parties. The cookies stored by our site cannot be used to identify you personally.

If you want to know how to disable the use of cookies on your device, visit aboutcookies.org. Please note that if you turn off the use of cookies on the website, you are likely to find your browsing experience significantly degraded, and you may not be able to use some of the products or services on our website without cookies.

WHAT YOUR RIGHTS ARE

We want to make sure you’re in control of how we use and keep your information.

You have the right to:

  • be told how your personal information will be used;
  • request a copy of the information we hold about you;
  • update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong;
  • change your communication preferences at any time;
  • ask us to remove your personal information from our records (see ‘How We Retain Your Information’ above);
  • request an electronic copy of your personal information be sent to you, or another organisation;
  • raise a concern or complaint about the way in which your information is being used.

Further Information

If you would like any more information or you have any comments about our Privacy Policy, please either write to us at Christine Bailey t/a Hants Counselling, Olive Villas, 6 Chequers Road, Basingstoke, Hants RG21 7PU, or email enquiries@hantscounselling.co.uk

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time without notice to you, in which case, we will publish the amended version on the Website.  You confirm that we shall not be liable to you or any third party for any change to this Privacy Policy from time to time.  It is your responsibility to check regularly to determine whether this Privacy Policy has changed.

You can ask us for a copy of this Privacy Policy and of any amended Privacy Policy by writing to the above address or by emailing us at enquiries@hantscounselling.co.uk. This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Data we hold about individuals. It does not apply to information we hold about companies and other organisations.

If you would like access to the Personal Data that we hold about you, you can do this by emailing us at enquiries@hantscounselling.co.uk or writing to us at the address noted above.

We aim to keep the Personal Data we hold about you accurate and up to date.  If you tell us that we are holding any inaccurate Personal Data about you, we will delete it or correct it promptly. Please email us at enquiries@hantscounselling.co.uk or write to us at the address above to update your Personal Data.

You can find out more on the Information Commissioner’s Office website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/