This policy sets out how Breathe into Life Wellbeing uses and protects the information you provide when using my services and accessing my website/social media.
I take your privacy very seriously and will only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the services you have requested/agreed to from me. Due to the new guidelines under GDPR which came into force in May 2018, the following information is a legal requirement for me to pass on.
I will ensure any data and personal information you provide is kept secure, managed respectfully and only used for the purposes for which it has been provided.
When you contact me via my website, by phone or email or other social media I will collect:
- Name
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Any information you choose to supply regarding the purpose of your enquiry/our agreed treatment
I use this information to contact you to discuss requirements and I may also use this information so that I may improve my services.
I gained this information from you directly and through no other means. Your information is never shared without your consent and you have the right to have it removed at any time (within reason, as some basic information I am legally required to hold for HMRC and legal purposes).
I sometimes record the sessions and take notes through the sessions which help me to provide the right treatment for you. These are based on our discussion and my observations and are kept in line with professional guidelines for a minimum of 8 years. You have the right to request, to hear, or to see these at any times given reasonable notice.
Under my membership of the NCH I am obliged to continue my professional learning and development and I may share anonymous case histories with my Supervisors and peer support groups. All information will remain anonymous and will not be a breach of my professional confidentiality.
The information you pass on is used in a variety of ways:
- For me to keep accurate records of my clients for HMRC purposes including invoicing.
- So that I can refer back to our previous work should you return as a future client (this can help us both to plan your treatment).
- To provide evidence of clients I have worked with to my accrediting body. This entails your initials only and the dates and number of hours that we worked together.
All bodies I am professionally associated with also have privacy policies in place. This is currently NCH.
How this information is used?
If you choose to proceed with making and appointment to see me I will send you a copy of this Privacy Policy so that you are aware in advance how I will use information provided in the course of our sessions together.
I will ask you when we start our sessions, if you wish to receive promotional / further information about services I may offer in the future, or about wellbeing in general. If you do not consent, I will not contact you for these purposes.
I will ask you for your GP details and some basic information about your general health. There are some conditions that are contra indicated for hypnotherapy and sometimes there are circumstances where it may be necessary to contact your GP before commencing therapy. I will inform you of this at our first appointment should it be appropriate.
I will ask you for details of your next of kin: this is used very rarely and only in an emergency. Once our treatment has concluded I will remove this from the file.
You do not have to consent to the collection of information, however, should you choose not to provide it I may not be able to work with you.
The Sessions
During our sessions I will ask for your email address for the purposes of sending you recordings to listen to as apart of therapy. It may also be necessary to send emails to confirm or rearrange appointments.
I will make a note of information you provide me in order that we can plan bespoke therapy sessions and identify/produce materials and scripts which will be used in sessions and/or sent to you to listen to between sessions. To clarity, I do not receive or retain your bank details.
Under the General Data Protection Regulations which are effective from May 2018, you have the following rights:
- The right to be informed (which is why we have produced this policy)
- The right of access: if you wish to see your file then please make a request to myself as the Data Processor. I will provide you with the information within 30 days of your request.
- The right to rectification: this is you r right to request changes to any information I hold that is factually inaccurate. If you believe any of the information, I hold on you is incorrect then please let me know as soon as possible and I will make the relevant changes.
- The right to erasure. Given the nature of our work I am required to hold your details for a period of 8 years, after this your information will be securely destroyed.
- The right to restrict processing: I will only use the information for the purposes that I have stated above. I uphold the common law principles of confidentiality where the duty to keep confidence is measured against the concept of ‘greater good’. If in my opinion as a therapist there is good reason to believe not to disclose would cause danger or serious harm to self, the therapist, or others, then your GP or other appropriate agencies may be contacted. Only information required to ensure safety of relevant parties would be disclosed. Information may have to be disclosed without consent for the prevention, detection, or prosecution of a crime. The sharing of anonymous case histories with supervisors and peer support groups is not a breach of professional confidentiality.
- The right to data portability: this right is more relevant to IT companies, e.g. the sharing of information when moving from one utility provider to another. I will not share your information without your specific consent, other than in the situations described above.
- The right to object: I will not contact you for marketing purposes unless you have given me specific consent to do so.
- The right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling: I will not use your information for profiling purposes.
Cookies
Cookies are small files which ask your permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive so that it can analyse web traffic to my website. Through this I can see which of my website’s pages are being viewed. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your setting to decline them if y you prefer. If you choose to do this, you may find that you cannot make full use of my website.
Links to other websites
My website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you use these links, please be aware that you have left my website and I do not have any control over other websites. I cannot be held responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide when visiting such sites and these sites are not governed by my privacy policy. Please exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website you are visiting.
This policy will be updated periodically in line with relevant legislation.