ABOUT ME
Psychotherapist
I am a fully qualified pscyhotherapist and psychotherapeutic counsellor. I'm accredited with the UKCP and adhere to the UKCP ethical code. I am also a registered member of BACP. I am a Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA-P) with an MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy.
I believe the power to change and live a rewarding life is in everyone. We may need to work through difficult life and relationship experiences in order to realise this.
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I have clinical experience in a variety of settings, with a wide range of people. Aside from my private practice in individual adult therapy, I have worked in settings from hospices to maternal mental health charities to complex needs including schizophrenia, addiction and homelessness.
Privacy Policy
1. INTRODUCTION
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 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:
• Why I am able to process your information and what purpose 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,
• Your data protection rights.
• Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via e-mail.
‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/ organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me.
I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office Reference: ZA488648. My phone number is: 07859 914434. My email address is: hello@amylennox.co.uk
2. MY LAWFUL BASIS FOR HOLDING AND USING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
The GDPR 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:
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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.
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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.
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The GDPR also makes sure 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 provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).
3. HOW I USE YOUR INFORMATION
Initial contact.
When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will be name and e-mail address, phone number if you prefer. If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 2 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.
While you are accessing counselling.
Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if:
a. If you threaten to harm yourself or harm another person
b. If I believe a child or protected adult is at risk of harm or abuse
c. If a court instructs me to give information
d. If you share information about a proposed act of terrorism or another illegal act (including money laundering)
I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
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I will keep a record of your personal details to help the therapy logistics run smoothly. These details are kept securely on my biometric accessed mobile phone and are not shared with any third party.
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I may take brief bullet point notes of the themes of sessions, primarily to record risk management steps, this is stored anonymously with no personal identifiers. I am required to store dates of sessions and payments. I may store notes in written format 'hard copy' or on my computer 'soft copy'. Hard copies are stored in a locked filing cabinet; soft copies on encrypted on my computer with a password.
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I may hold personal data about your GP or emergency contact, if provided by you, for the period of our work, but will neither disclose this fact, nor the fact that I am (or have been) working with you to that nominated person unless I believe there is a risk of serious harm to you or others, or in compliance with legal requirements.
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For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 1 week. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will log in my notes, if necessary. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after one month if it is not important. If necessary, I will transfer to my written notes stored on my computer.
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You have a right to request access to data that I hold on you, but as this will likely consist solely of data provided by you, I may decline to provide it [under Article 13(4)]; you also have a right to request erasure of such data, but as a standard for UKCP, I retain the data for a period of seven years from the date of collection in order to protect my professional interests [under Article 17(3)(e)]; your rights are fully set out at www.ico.org.uk
After counselling has ended.
Once counselling has ended, your contact records will be deleted after our last session. I keep any notes anonymously for 7 years from the end of our contact in order to protect my professional interests [under Article 17(3)(e)] After 7 years all data is securely destroyed. You can request to delete your information sooner than this.
4. THIRD PARTY RECIPIENTS OF YOUR DATA
If you contact me through this website, WIX.com will hold youe e-mail data according to their privacy policy, until I have deleted it. Wix's privacy policy is here: https://www.wix.com/about/privacy
I use Microsoft 365 to store on the cloud and microsoft outlook which will contain e-mails sent to me, until I have deleted it. Microsoft's privacy policy is here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacy/privacystatement
Any session notes are stored with anonymous identifiers.
I use ClinicalWill.app to store contact details to be accessed by my counselling executor in the event of my death or incapacitation. ClinicalWill.app's privacy statement is here: https://clinicalwill.app/dpa
5. YOUR RIGHTS
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 to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. 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 I will:
• give you a description of it and where it came from;
• tell you why I am holding its, 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 an intelligible form.
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 hello@amylennox.co.uk
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If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. 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.
6. DATA SECURITY
I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure.
I use encrypted devices, passwords for each soft copy document, locked filing cabinet for hard copies and biometric access on mobile devices.
7. VISITORS TO MY WEBSITE
When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, wix.com to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow wix.com to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.
I use Wix so that I can continually improve my service to you, You can read Wix’s privacy notice here https://www.wix.com/about/privacy. I use Wix.com as the content management system for my website - find out about https://www.wix.com/about/privacy and data protection.
Like most websites Wix uses cookies to help the site work more efficiently - find out about our use of cookies https://www.wix.com/about/privacy. No user-specific data is collected by me or any third party. If you fill in a form on my website, that data will be temporarily stored on the web host before being sent to me.
CONTACT ME
E-mail me to arrange a free initial consultation to explore your needs. If you feel I can help, we will book our first session.