PRIVACY POLICY
Your privacy is very important to me and you can remain confident that your personal information will be kept safely and securely 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 informs you how I will use your personal information from initial point of contact through to after 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
Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling
Your data protection rights.
Please do let me know if you any questions about my data protection policy. You can contact me at info@alexmonktherapy.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 [ICO:00015692921]. My postal address is Ground Floor Office, 2A Median Road, London, E50PL. My phone number is 07531889011.
General data protection regulations (GDPR) came into effect on May 25th 2018 and this page details my updated privacy policy.
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 set these out 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 our work.
GDPR legislation ensures 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 that it is for provision of psychotherapy and necessary for our work together.
How I use your information
When you contact me with an enquiry about psychotherapy, I will collect information to help me respond to your enquiry. These details will include:
Your name
email address and phone number
If you decide not to proceed with psychotherapy, I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 7 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please inform me.
While in psychotherapy
Everything you discuss with me in psychotherapy is confidential. I will break confidentiality only if I feel you are a risk to yourself or your others and I therefore need to share your personal information with a health professional such as your GP.I will always try to discuss this with you first, unless there are safeguarding or risk issues that prevent this.
Your personal details
I will keep a record of your personal details while you are in therapy. Your GP details and name, address and date of birth are kept securely in a locked cabinet in my consulting room. I keep these details as required by professional liability insurer and the UKCP. At the end of our work together I will retain your name and address for seven years to fulfill my professional liability obligations. All other personal information will be securely deleted. I securely share via encrypted e-mail your first name and e-mail address with my professional executor so that in the event of my incapacity they are able to contact you. At the end of psychotherapy my professional executor will securely delete these.
I keep your phone number in my mobile phone under a code so that you cannot be identified. My phone is locked with a passcode when I am not using it. Your email address is held in my Google workspace account which is password protected and has two factor authentication. I need to keep your phone number and email address in the event that I need to contact you for any reason so that we can carry out our work together.
Neither my computer nor my phone are shared with anyone else. At the end of psychotherapy your records are securely destroyed. In order to maintain confidentiality I recommend that after we have begun working together that electronic communications such as e-mail & SMS are only used for the purposes of arranging appointments. I will delete your phone number and e-mail address at the end of our work together, along with any e-mails and texts we have exchanged.
Session Notes
I will take brief notes and these are saved on a password protected disk on my computer. I take notes as a brief reminder of what has taken place in sessions, to fulfill my ethical responsibility as set out in UKCP’s ethical guidelines and to maintain my obligations to my professional liability insurer. I do not share my notes with anyone and I keep them for 7 years to fulfill my professional liability obligations. At the end of this period I will securely delete them.
Artwork
I will keep your artwork securely in a folder in my consulting room which is only accessible to me. If you do not wish to take your artwork with you at the end of our work together I will dispose of it securely. I may share your artwork with my supervisor as part of my ethical professional practice as required by the UKCP and HCPC. To protect your confidentiality I will use a pseudonym so that your personal details are not revealed.
Your rights
You have the 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 info@alexmonktherapy.com
Complaints
If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data, please do not hesitate to 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 ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
MY Website
None of your personal information is stored on my website, other than your email and address and phone number which is saved in my Google workspace account for the purposes of our initial contact. This is deleted from my email account once these details have been securely saved under a code as detailed above.
This website is hosted by Squarespace. See their website privacy policy here.
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