Privacy notice

About Peace in mind

Peace in mind is the trading name for therapeutic counselling provided by me, Laura Bradley.

I’m a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), membership number: 990201. I’m registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), reference: C1410663.

My contact details are: laura@peaceinmind.co.uk / 07766 504223

The type of personal information I collect

I currently collect and process the following information:

• Name and contact details

• Dates / times / number of attendances to sessions

• Notes from sessions. These are brief and factual, noting themes from sessions. I don’t note details of what was said.

How I get your information, why I have it and how it’s stored

The personal information I process is provided directly by you in relation to enquiring about therapy and attending sessions. I use the information you give me to:

• Make contact with you and schedule appointments

• Send invoices / receipts

• Keep track of attendance and payments

• Assess if it’s appropriate for us to work together, i.e. to determine that the work would be within my capability and not outside of my professional boundaries

• Use as a reminder / prompt when preparing for future sessions.

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) states 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. These are outlined below:

If you haven’t agreed a contract with me:

• I’ll use your consent as my lawful basis. You can remove your consent at any time by contacting me on the details at the start of this notice.

• I’ll keep your name and contact details for one calendar month after your initial enquiry or until the date of our free consultation session if this is scheduled for after a month. After our consultation you may need longer to decide if therapy is for you. In this case I can keep your contact details and brief notes from our consultation for a further month if you ask me to. You can ask me to delete your information sooner if you prefer.

If you have agreed a contract and are therefore currently having therapy with me:

• I’ll use the contract as my lawful basis.

• I’ll keep your contact details and brief notes from our sessions. Information discussed in therapy is confidential. I take care to ensure sessions are private and not overheard, for example when working remotely.

• I’ll only break confidentiality if:

  • you disclose something that causes me to have serious concerns about your safety or the safety of another person

  • you disclose something that means I’m legally required to report an act of money laundering or terrorist activity

  • I need to seek advice or guidance from my clinical supervisor, who works within the same confidentiality boundaries as me.

• If you create materials within our sessions, I encourage you to store these yourself. If you don’t wish to keep them, I can either destroy (shred) them for you or keep electronic copies during active therapy work, which will be deleted once therapy ends.

If you have previously had therapy with me and it has now ended:

• I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis.

• I will keep your contact details and brief notes from our sessions for five years after you finish therapy.

On very rare occasions I may have to share client notes with an external body if this is demanded by a court order. It is for this reason that my client notes are very brief and factual and will only show the date / time you attended sessions and the themes discussed. This ensures any details discussed in sessions remain confidential.

Your information is securely stored and encrypted in Microsoft One Drive. Files will be removed (when required) from my One Drive account and recycle bin. I do not store paper-based records. I do not keep direct messages received from you via email, voicemail, text, WhatsApp or other social media – these will usually be deleted within one week, unless I have a reason for keeping them longer (for example I am on holiday when you contact me and I reply when I am back at work).

Your rights

If I do hold information about you, I’ll process it in line with this privacy notice.

You have a right to ask me to:

• delete your personal information

• limit how I use your personal information

• stop processing your personal information

• ask for a copy of any information I hold about you

• object to the use of your personal data

• correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you.

I’ll seek advice from the ICO and/or my insurance company before agreeing to any of the above, as some requests can only be made in certain circumstances.

To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing to laura@peaceinmind.co.uk

You can read more about your rights at www.ico.org.uk/your-data-matters

Complaints

If you have a complaint about how I handle your personal data please get in touch with me by email. 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 www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

If you have a complaint about anything else in my practice, I’d like the opportunity to learn and improve from your feedback. Please get in touch if you’re happy to discuss this with me. If you don’t wish to speak to me and have concerns about my professional conduct, you can contact the BACP for advice and to make a complaint: https://www.bacp.co.uk/about-us/protecting-the-public/professional-conduct/how-to-complain-about-a-bacp-member/

Visitors to this website

When someone visits this website, I use a third party service, Google Analytics, 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 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 Google Analytics 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 Wordpress, hosted by Hostinger, as the content management system for this website.

Cookies

Like most websites we use cookies to help the site work more efficiently. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

We may use cookies to collect, store, and track information for statistical or marketing purposes to operate our website. You have the ability to accept or decline optional Cookies. There are some required Cookies that are necessary for the operation of our website. These cookies do not require your consent as they always work. Please keep in mind that by accepting required Cookies, you also accept third-party Cookies, which might be used via third-party provided services if you use such services on our website, for example, a video display window provided by third parties and integrated into our website.

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.