Why this policy exists
This data protection policy ensures Strawberry Fields Therapy:
- Complies with data protection law and follow good practice
- Protects the rights of staff, customers and partners
- Is open about how it stores and processes individuals’ data
- Protects itself from the risks of a data breach
Data protection law
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is EU wide and far more extensive than its predecessor the Data Protection Act, along with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), seek to protect and enhance the rights of EU data subjects. These rights cover the safeguarding of personal data, protection against the unlawful processing of personal data and the unrestricted movement of personal data within the EU and its storage within the EEA.
I, Mrs. Marina Moran Lopez, am pleased to provide the following information:
Who I am
I am a Counselling Psychologist and approach my work with the utmost regard for a client’s wellbeing and rights. The Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) regulates and informs my practice. You can find out more about my professional and legal responsibilities on their respective websites.
www.hcpc-uk.org.uk
Information I collect about you and how I use it
For the purpose of providing treatment
Upon starting therapy, basic personal information will be collected for contact and identification reasons. During our therapy meetings, an assessment of your psychological health will be completed, and notes will be taken during sessions. These will include personal and sensitive details about your life. The assessment and notes are used solely for the delivery of a therapy service to you.
The information we collect may include the following;
- Name
- Address
- Date of birth
- Gender (or preferred identity)
- Telephone/SMS number/WhatsApp contact details (plus permission to send SMS and WhatsApp message and leave voice messages)
- Email address
- GP name and practice address
- Occupation
- Relationships
- Psychological therapy history including any current or historical psychiatric diagnoses.
- Medical conditions relevant to psychological therapy
- Prescribed medication
- Current psychological difficulties
- Historical psychological difficulties
- Lifestyle and social circumstances
- Risk information such as suicidal and self-harming history and alcohol and drug use
Website Cookies
My website uses cookies. A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Cookies to help The Practice to identify and track visitors and their website access preferences. Website visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using this website
I will only collect the information needed so that we can provide you with the services you require, I do not sell or broker your data.
Confidentiality
The information about confidentiality in no way contravenes your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation May 2018 to access personal data that I hold about you. I keep confidential records and statistics about all the clients I work with. Information but not names will be shared with my supervisor who is also accredited and who regularly reviews my practice.
These records are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation May 2018.
Your personal and sensitive personal data will only be used in order to provide the service to you and for managing and quality assuring the service.
Psychotherapy is a private and confidential form of help. I hold information about each of my clients and the psychotherapy they receive in confidence. This means that I will not normally give your name or any information about you to anyone outside the organisation. However, there are exceptional cases where I might ethically or legally have to give information to relevant authorities, for example if I had reason to believe that someone, especially a child or adult, is at serious risk of harm or to prevent a miscarriage of justice. I will discuss any proposed disclosure with you unless I believe that to do so could increase the level of risk to you or to someone else. There are other supervening legal and ethical obligations, such as my duty to comply with criminal investigations when I am legally obliged to do so.
As a fully accredited member of the HCPC, I adhere to their ethical framework and guidelines to ensure that you receive a professional and quality service.
Your rights
You have the following righs:
To be informed what information your psychologist holds (i.e. to be given or have access to their individual privacy policy document)
To see the demographic information your psychologist has about you (free of charge for the initial request)
To make a ‘subject access request’ (SAR) to your psychologist for copies of your records. There may be an administrative charge for this and these will be provided within one calendar month of the request being made.
To rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
To withdraw consent to your psychologist using your personal information e.g. to withdraw consent for them to telephone you and request they contact you via email only.
To request your personal information to be erased (though your psychologist can decline whilst the information is needed for them to practice within their own professional code of ethics and conduct).
If you wish to assert any of these rights you should contact your psychologist.
We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy policy at any time and if you are in therapy with us, we will send you notice of this via your agreed method of contact
Lawful basis for processing your information
The lawful basis for my holding and using your information is in relation to the delivery of a contract to you as a health care professional. As an accredited psychologist I operate under a strict code of confidentiality.
Data storage
We do not store personal data outside the EEA. All data storage services used are fully GDPR compliant and available on request.
How long is information stored for- data retention
Your information is kept for the time necessary to provide the therapy service requested, however outside of this I will hold your details and session notes for a period of 7 years following the end of treatment to comply with legal obligations that are placed upon me by my insurers. After this date, all data will be securely deleted.
Reports and client records
Occasionally I am asked by my clients or by external agencies such as Social Services or the NHS to write reports on the progress made in psychotherapy. I am not normally in a position to do this because of my duty of confidentiality. However, in some circumstances, and on receipt of written consent from the client(s) who attended psychotherapy, I can provide brief information about the dates and number of sessions attended.
Children and vulnerable adults in particular must be given ample opportunity to understand the nature, purpose, and anticipated consequences of any professional information sharing, so that they may give informed consent to the extent that their capabilities allow. Whilst requests of this nature are common, and often helpful, I can only agree to participate in information sharing with informed consent and when it is my professional opinion that it is in a client’s best interest.
In addition, I am occasionally also asked by clients, their solicitors, the police
and the courts for access to the client records. These are not suitable as evidence in legal proceedings and I reserve the right to resist legal requests to produce the records in court. I do this in order to protect the duty of confidentiality of my clients and to preserve my reputation as the provider of confidential psychotherapy.
There may be times where your information needs to be shared with 3rd parties. I will explicitly ask your consent before doing so, and the data will be sent to 3rd parties securely.
Feedback and complaints
If you have any feedback about the service you receive from me, or you are not satisfied with your experience, please contact me. It is possible that I can resolve your complaint and I welcome feedback and if you make a complaint, I will always take it seriously as it allows me to improve the service that I can offer to others.
Consent
At the start of treatment a consent form is given to you which enables you to agree processing your personal data for the purposes outlined above.
For further information or you wish to make a complaint please contact:
Name: Mrs. Marina Moran Lopez (Counselling Psychologist and Data Protection Representative)
Contact Number: 07376184420
Email: marinamoran@strawberryfieldstherapy.com
ICO
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF Telephone +44 (0) 303 123 1113 https://ico.org.uk
