Privacy policy.
What This Privacy Notice Covers
Seed Counselling is committed to protecting your personal information and privacy. This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect will be processed by us and explains how we use the personal information about you.
In this notice, references to ‘us’ or ‘our’ mean Seed Counselling.
When requesting counselling with Seed Counselling or otherwise provide your personal details to us you will be asked to consent to our processing of your data under the terms of this policy.
By visiting our website you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.
Third party agents, and websites which are linked to ours, are not covered by this policy.
Any personal data provided by you to Seed Counselling through any means (verbal, written, in electronic form, or by your use of our website) will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the services you have requested from us, and to meet the legitimate interests of Seed Counselling.
If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions on our use of the information, please contact us via our contact form on the website or email briony@seedcounselling.co.uk
Who We Are
Seed Counselling is a counselling private practice.
Seed Counselling operates the website www.seedcounselling.co.uk (the “website”)
The GDPR refers to ‘controllers’ and ‘processors’. Seed Counselling is a data controller and of data processor under data protection legislation.
What Information We Process
While using our services, we may ask you to provide us with personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you. The information you give us may include, but is not limited to:
Names and titles; date of birth; name and address of GP.
Contact details such as telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses, correspondence.
Copies of receipts recording payment of fees.
Clinical information gathered as part of the enquiry and counselling process.
Other information such as financial information and bank verification information.
Where they are relevant to our work, and where you provide them to us, demographic information such as gender, age, marital status, sexuality, ethnicity, employment status, disability, income, religion, area of residence, how you heard about Seed Counselling and other details we deem relevant to processing your request.
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous data relating to user behaviour and ‘web traffic’ statistics. The collection and use of this data by Google Inc. is subject to their own Privacy Policies.
Your information is collected from:
Any information entered on our website.
Email and post correspondence with Seed Counselling.
Contact via phone.
In-person contacts with Seed Counselling.
Information received from external third parties, where relevant.
Why We Collect This Information
· To fulfil our administrative, legal and contractual obligations.
· To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from us.
· To offer suitable counselling appointments.
To notify you of appointments, cancellations, and any policy/procedural changes that will affect you as a client of Seed Counselling.
To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling with us.
To improve our service to ensure that it is provided in the most effective manner for you and for us.
To administer our service, including the arrangement of appointments, for financial control, data analysis, research, statistical and survey purposes.
To keep in touch with those who consent to this, for the purposes of organisational, service and professional development.
Where necessary to carry out comprehensive safeguarding procedures in accordance with best safeguarding practice.
The Lawful Basis for Processing Your Data
We only use your personal information where that is permitted by the laws that protect your privacy rights.
The processing of personal data is governed by the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR).
We only use personal information where:
We have your consent (if consent is needed).
We need to use the information to comply with our legal obligations.
We need to use the information to perform a contract with you.
It is fair to use the personal information either in our interests or someone else's interests, where there is no disadvantage to you.
Seed Counselling will comply with its legal obligations to keep your personal data up to date; to store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure; and to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect it.
Communications
If you subscribe to our monthly journal, we may use your personal information to contact you with marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you.
You may opt out of receiving any or all of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link in any email we send or contacting us in writing.
How Long We Keep Hold of Your Information
We will usually keep your information for as long as is necessary for the purpose it was collected. Your identifiable personal information is kept separately from any session notes and other descriptive material. Client notes and other documentation are destroyed 3 years after the end of counselling. Personal contact details are destroyed/deleted after 7 years of no contact or updates. We may hold your information for more or less time if there are legal reasons or we are required to remove such data from our records.
What information do we share?
We will not share any information about you with other organisations or people, except in the following situations:
Consent – Seed counselling may share your information with professional carers or others whom you have requested or agreed we should contact.
Serious harm – In exceptional circumstances Seed counselling may share your information with the relevant authorities if we have reason to believe that this may prevent serious harm being caused to you or another person. At such times Seed Counselling will not need your permission to pass on essential information to the relevant person(s).
Compliance with law – Seed counselling may share your information where we are required to by law or by the regulations and other rules to which we are subject.
How Your Data Is Stored and Kept Secure
At Seed Counselling, we take your safety and security seriously and we are committed to protecting your personal and financial information.
All information you provide to us is stored as securely as possible. All paper forms and correspondence are kept in secure locked storage. All electronic records are stored securely using data security protocols, and all access is by password-protected authentication.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your information using industry-standard protocols and encryption, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data transmitted to us via email, including forms completed on our website which are transmitted by email; any transmission is at your own risk. We will always act in accordance with the relevant UK and EU legislation. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
What Your Rights Are
Individuals have certain rights over their personal data and data controllers are responsible for fulfilling these rights. Where we decide how and why personal data is processed, we are a data controller and include further information about the rights that individuals have and how to exercise them below.
Where the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time.
You have the rights set out below which you can exercise at any time.
You have the right:
To ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes.
To ask us not to process your personal data where it is processed on the basis of legitimate interests provided that there are no compelling reasons for that processing.
To ask us not to process your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes, where relevant, unless the processing is necessary in the public interest.
To request from us access to personal information held about you.
To ask for the information we hold about you to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
To ask for data to be erased, provided that:
The personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
You withdraw consent (if the legal basis for processing is consent).
You exercise your right to object, set out below, and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for processing.
The data is unlawfully processed.
The data needs to be erased to comply with a legal obligation.
The data is children’s data and was collected in relation to an offer of information society services.
This will generally apply to situations where counselling has ended. It is important to note that this is not an absolute right; our Client Data Retention Schedule has been devised in keeping with standards of good practice in the counselling and psychotherapy professions – see The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy further information.
To ask for the processing of that information to be restricted if:
The accuracy of that data is contested.
The processing is unlawful.
The personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
You exercise your right to object (pending verification of whether there are legitimate grounds for processing) to ask for data portability if the processing is carried out by automated means and the legal basis for processing is consent or contract. Automated processing for decision-making is not used at Seed Counselling.
When exercising any of these rights and in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.
You may make a request by writing to Seed Counselling in writing via the contact page on the website or by emailing briony@seedcounselling.co.uk. Any access request will be processed as required by law and will be free of charge.
Complaints
We hope that you won’t ever need to, but if you do want to complain about our use of personal data, please send an email with the details of your complaint to briony@seedcounselling.co.uk. We will look into and respond to any complaints we receive.
Additionally, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) which is the supervisory authority for data protection in the UK. We request that you first bring any complaint to our attention before contacting the ICO so that we may take appropriate action to resolve the issue. For further information on your rights and how to complain to the ICO, please refer to the ICO website.
Contact Us
Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed via the contact page on the website or via email addressed to briony@seedcounselling.co.uk.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review, and we will place any updated versions on our website. This Privacy Notice was last updated March 2021.