Privacy and Policy

 

Statement of Intent

This policy sets out how Lighthearts-uk Ltd uses and protects the information that you provide when you use our services and our website.

It is our intention to ensure that any data you provide is managed respectfully, kept secure and only used for the purposes for which it has been provided. This policy will be updated from time to time in line with prevailing legislation.

As a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, I abide by their code of ethics which include confidentiality. The contents of your sessions will be kept confidential unless there is a legal obligation or there is a risk of serious harm to yourself or others. If an occasion does arise as above, I would aim to firstly discuss the matter with you. (Please note: I do NOT provide reports or letters for divorce, family custody, benefits, education, workplace or immigration or visa applications, even with client consent.) As part of the BACP code, all counsellors have to be supervised. In this supervision your anonymity would be protected.

In compliance with GDPR, your details are stored as a legal requirement and all client data is stored securely. In addition, I keep brief client notes which are anonymised. The official data will be disposed of as confidential waste after a period of three years.

When you contact us via phone or email we will collect your:

  • Name

  • Email Address

  • Telephone Number

  • Any information you choose to supply regarding the purpose of your enquiry.

What we do with this information

We use this information in order to make contact with you to discuss your requirements. If you choose to go ahead with an appointment we will use a form called an Assessment Form.

In the Assessment Form we will ask for

Your name, address, telephone and email contact details so that we may contact you during the time we are working together.

Your GP contact details and health information.

In the course of our sessions we will make brief anonymised notes of the information you provide to us in order that we can provide the best service possible.

Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulations which are effective from 25th May 2018 you have the following rights:

The GDPR includes the following rights for individuals:

  • the right to be informed (which is why we have produced this policy)

  • the right of access (if you wish to see your file then please make a request in writing to the Data Processor. We will provide you with the information within 30 days of your request)

  • the right to rectification (this is your right to request changes to any information we hold that is factually inaccurate. If you believe any of the information we hold about you is incorrect then please let us know as soon as possible and we will make the appropriate changes

  • the right to erasure (given the nature of our work we are required to hold our details for a period of 3 years, after this your information will be securely destroyed.)

  • the right to restrict processing (we will only use the information for the purposes that we have stated: most standards of confidentiality applied in professional contexts are based upon the Common Law concept of confidentiality where the duty to keep confidence is measured against the concept of “greater good”. If in the therapist’s opinion there is good cause to believe that not to disclose would cause danger or serious harm to self, the therapist or others, your GP or other appropriate agencies may be contacted. Only information required to ensure safety of relevant parties would be disclosed. Information may have to be disclosed without consent for the prevention, detection or prosecution of a crime. The sharing of anonymous case histories with supervisors and peer support groups is not a breach of professional confidentiality

  • the right to data portability: we will not share your information, other than in the situations described above, without your specific consent

  • the right to object

  • the right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling

Statistical Information about Traffic to our Site

We use statistics software to track user traffic patterns throughout our site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. We do break down overall usage statistics according to where users linked to us from, and about their browser type, by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user’s browser).

Webcam Sessions

Where sessions are conducted by Webcam, eg. Zoom, Facetime, the sessions are not recorded.

Cookies

Cookies are small files which ask permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive so that we can analyse web traffic to our site. Through this we can see which of our website’s pages are being viewed and are of interest. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can modify your setting to decline them if you prefer.  If you choose to do this you may find you cannot make full use of our website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you use these links please be aware that you have left our website and we do not have any control over other websites. We cannot therefore be held responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide when visiting such sites and these sites are not governed by our privacy policy. We advise therefore that you exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.