SOUL SPACE COUNSELLING AND WELLBEING CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION POLICY
I am committed to keeping your personal information safe, and being clear about how it is collected, how it is stored and what happens to it.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Your counselling session is confidential between us. Your personal details and all personal information disclosed will remain confidential.
I do, however, reserve the right to break confidentiality in certain circumstances.
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If there appears to be a serious and imminent risk to your safety or the safety of others. I reserve the right to break confidentiality to prevent
harm. However, this would only be in extreme circumstances, and I would always try to discuss this with you before taking any action.
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Legally I am obliged to disclose information about acts of terrorism and proceeds of drug/arms/people trafficking to the police immediately
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DATA COLLECTION
Soul Space Counselling and Wellbeing is registered under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2018 as a data controller with the number ZB204575. Full details of this listing
can be seen on the Information Commissioner’s Office website
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I only collect the data required to fulfil your contract with me. My records are anonymised, computerised, and password-protected to comply
with The Data Protection Act 2018. To comply with GDPR, signing this agreement gives consent for me to hold ‘sensitive personal data’.
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The primary purpose of keeping records and process notes is to support my work with my clients. My notes do not identify any clients
This is within the BACP's Ethical Framework’s commitment to ‘put clients first’. Notes may also be useful as an aide memoire and help with
noticing patterns or developments in our work.
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To comply with GDPR, Client records and notes will be kept only for as long as is necessary.
For clients who are over 18, this is for a period of 7 years.
For clients who started therapy whilst under 18, records will be kept for 7 years after their 18th birthday.
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REMOTE CONTACT
VIDEO CALL - I use VSEE Messenger App for sessions via video call. The VSee app protects the confidentiality and integrity of your
personal information by using encryption mechanisms on all servers hosting data. Contact Security is used to ensure that a user can only be contacted via chat or call by
others that the user has approved. More information can be found here. https://vsee.com/privacy​
TELEPHONE - I use a dedicated phone for client work and I do not store contact details or names.
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CONTACT AND PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES
There are other therapists working within Soul Space, and whilst we try to minimise cross overs, please be aware that if you attend your sessions
in person, it’s possible you may come in to contact with other people
To protect your privacy and maintain confidentiality If we unexpectedly meet outside of the therapy space I will always wait for you to acknowledge me first before reciprocating.
Counselling is a professional relationship and as such it’s not appropriate to connect personally on social media. Please don’t invite me as I don’t want to cause offence by declining.
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If you have any questions about confidentiality or data protection please do get in touch.