Judith Waring - Psychotherapy and Counselling in York

Data Protection and Privacy Policy

Maintaining safe protection and privacy of personal information is a vital part of my practice as a Psychotherapist Counsellor and Clinical Supervisor. This document describes my data protection and privacy policy, in line with good practice and relevant legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018. 

I collect and keep some personal information from my clients and supervisees. The purpose of this is to record who I am seeing and ensure that I am practicing effectively and able to communicate with clients and supervisees as necessary for our work. I keep: our contract, brief notes of our sessions, your contact details (name, address, telephone number (s), email addresses, relevant emails and texts as recommended by professional bodies and insurers. 

I take the following measures to ensure your information is stored securely:

• Paper documents are kept in a locked filing cabinet.  
• The therapy contract signed at the beginning of our work is stored separately to session notes.  
• Session notes do not contain any information that would identify you or others you discuss in person
• Email addresses and mobile numbers are kept on password protected devices only.  
• When information is no longer required it is deleted or shredded. 
• Paper records are kept for 7 years after the therapy has ended in accordance with professional and insurance guidelines.

There are limits to the protection of private information where disclosure is legally mandated and/or concerns child protection and significant risk of harm. 

You are entitled to have access to the personal data that I hold about you via a subject access request . I will respond to your request within one calendar month . 

In the unlikely event of a personal data breach I will inform you as soon as possible, record it and report it within 72 hours to the relevant supervisory authority.

See the Information Commissioner’s website https://ico.org.uk for further information about data protection legislation.