Introduction

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Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me.  I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018.  This privacy notice tells you what I will do with the personal information from our initial point of contact through to the conclusion of your therapy, including:

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• The legal basis I have for processing your information and what I am processing it for

• Whether you have to provide it to me

• How long I store it for

• Whether there are other recipients of your personal information

• Whether I intend to transfer it to another country

• Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

• Your data protection rights.

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I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email at admin@2btherapy.co.uk or on 0755371688.

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'Data controller' is the term used to describe the person/organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for someones personal data.  In this instance, the data controller is me.  I am registered with the Information Commissioner's Office.

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My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

Data protection legislation states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data.  There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data.  I have explained these below: If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use "legitimate interest" as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.  If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for "the performance of our contract".  Data protection law also requires that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately.  This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is that it is for the provision of health treatment (in this case therapy) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).

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How I use your information

Initial contact.

When you contact me with an enquiry about my therapy services I will collect information to help me respond to your enquiry. This will include your name, contact details and any information you provide about why you are considering therapy. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 1 month of being notified of your decision.  If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

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While you are accessing therapy.

Please be assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if what you tell me leads me to conclude that you are intent on causing harm to yourself or to others or puts me in the position of breaking the law. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the therapy service run smoothly. These details are kept securely using a web-based encrypted electronic records system called writeupp (see https://www.writeupp.com/security details). These details are not shared with any third party. I will keep brief written notes of each session, these are also stored in the writeupp system.  For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 1 month. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will record this in the writeupp system. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 1 month if it is not important. If necessary, I will record this in the writeupp system.

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After therapy has ended.

Once therapy has ended your records will be kept for 7 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

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Your rights

I aim to be fully transparent in giving people access to any personal information I have about them. You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and, in some circumstances, to object to the use of your personal data. You can read more about your rights at ico.org.uk/your-data-matters.

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If I do hold information about you, when requested I will:

• give you a description of what information I have and where it came from;

• tell you why I am holding it, tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision;

• tell you who it could be disclosed to;

• let you have a copy of the information in a readily accessible format.

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You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you. To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to  admin@2btherapy.co.uk

If you have any concerns about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing via the details given above. I welcome any suggestions you may have for improving my data protection procedures.

If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

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Data security

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. I use the encrypted WhatsApp service for text messages between us and an encrypted, web-based electronic records system to store your personal details and notes of our sessions.  Any paper correspondence you send me will be scanned and uploaded to the encrypted bacpac service and the paper original destroyed.

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If you have any questions about the information you share with me, please do not hesitate to ask.

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