Privacy Policy

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 emmadowrick6@gmail.com

‘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

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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: 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. 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 consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).

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 include:

• Name

• Age 

• Address

• Mobile/landline phone number

• Email address

• School / College / Uni

• Occupation

• GP details

• Access requirements

• If you have had counselling before

• Any known medical/ mental health conditions/ medication taken

• Emergency contact details

• Gender

• Religion

• disability/additional needs

• sexual identity- optional if you do not want to disclose this

• ethnicity.

 

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. 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:

The client threatens to cause significant risk of harm to themselves or others

If the counsellor believes a child or vulnerable adult is at risk of harm or abuse

If the client shares information relating to the following legislation: - The Terrorism Act (2000) requires that the counsellor disclose any belief of suspicion of acts of terrorism. - The Drug Trafficking Act (1986) requires the counsellor to disclose to the police information of any individual making money through drug trafficking. - The Road Traffic Act (2000) requires the counsellor to provide information to the police that might identify a driver in a traffic offence. In addition, if a counsellor becomes aware that a client may be driving whilst unsafe (e.g. through epilepsy, medical condition, drug or alcohol abuse) the law requires the counsellor to pass this information to the DVLA.

 

 

 

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 counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely in a locked metal container in a cupboard and are not shared with any third party. I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept separately from your personal information. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 6 months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will note it on brief clients notes and then delete the text. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 6 months if it is not important. If necessary I will add it to the brief client notes and then delete the email.

 

After counselling has ended.

Once counselling 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.

If you are under 18 and following your 18th birthday your records will be kept for another 7 years.  This is so that we have a reference of our work in situations such as you returning to counselling in the future. After this date, I will shred all written documentation and delete electronic records.

 

THIRD PARTY RECIPIENTS OF PERSONAL DATA

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

• Google meets

• Google email

• Microsoft Teams

 

Your rights

I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. 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. 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 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 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 emmadowrick6@gmail.com

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. I would welcome any suggestions 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

 

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.

Paper Records-  all written records are stored securely in locked filing cabinets in a locked office with restricted access.

We keep your counselling notes separate from your contact details.

Emma Dowrick Counselling allocates a number to each of my clients to keep information confidential. Your mobile phone contact details are stored under your client number rather than your name. Email If you contact us by email your email contact details will be stored in the Google email accounts and delete emails from this account when we no longer need them for reference, usually within one month. Emails we might need to refer to in the future are printed off and stored with the paper records.

Website-  None of your personal information is stored on Emma Dowrick Counselling/ Dowrick Therapy website.

 

Additional information for website owners and employers

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Google analytics, Google Business Wix.com and Rabbit SEO 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 and Rabbit SEO 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.com and Rabbit SEO so that I can continually improve my service to you, you can read Wix and Rabbit SEO privacy notice on their web pages.

Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently.  For reference see bacp.co.uk/notices/cookies. 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.

June 2025