Honor Allen, owner of Honor Allen Counselling, is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy states what happens when you contact me via my website, by email, by phone, and when you decide to enter into a therapeutic contract with me.
• If you do decide to come to therapy or supervision with me I will hold your personal data in the form of a Contact Details form attached to my contract, as an agreement of the terms and conditions of the therapeutic or supervisory relationship.
• This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data I collect from you will be processed by me. Please read the following carefully to understand my practices regarding your personal data and how I will treat it.
• For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act) (soon to be General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) the data controller is Honor Allen.
• The owner of this website is registered with the Information Commissioners Office.
Your details will be stored and kept securely and confidentially in a safe filing system (locked filing box). Contact details are deleted once our therapeutic or supervisory relationship has ended. Printed off forms will be shredded and discarded. Anonymous brief session notes are retained for seven years to comply with insurance requirements. Anonymised details are also recorded electronically with password protection for added security.
• You may provide information about yourself by filling in forms on this website or by corresponding with me by phone, email, message, Facebook business page or via a directory.
• This includes information you provide when you send a message through my contact form and when you report a problem with my site.
• The information you provide may include but not limited to your name, address, e-mail address and phone number.
I use information held about you in the following ways:
• I will use this information to carry out my professional and contractual obligations during out therapeutic or supervisory relationship. This includes:
• Contracting and ensuring the terms found in the contract are upheld by both parties
• In case of emergencies or where disclosure might be necessary – I will contact your GP or next of kin in these cases with your knowledge and consent UNLESS it is a case of terrorism, drug trafficking or money laundering, which by law I must report without the need for consent.
I will not share your personal information with anyone else, unless there is a duty to disclose in order to comply with any legal obligation (terrorism alerts, drug trafficking or money laundering). It will not be passed onto a third party for the purposes of marketing etc.
The only other person involved in your case – only your first name will be known to them, or if you choose to be anonymised further, initials or aliases can be used – will be my Supervisor, who is held by the same privacy, data protection and confidentiality clauses as described here and in my contract.
The current Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act.
You have the right to ask for a copy of your personal information, free of charge, in an electronic or paper format. You also have the right to ask me to amend or change any incorrect information about you.
You have the right to ask me to delete any information that I hold about you, including personal information that is no longer relevant to original purposes – for example when our therapeutic relationship has ended or if you wish to withdraw consent. In all cases and when considering such requests, these rights are obligatory unless it’s information that I have a legal obligation to retain.
You have the right to receive your personal information as previously provided, and to transfer this information to another party.
If you have any questions, please use the contact form provided.