Privacy Policy
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), introduced on May 25th 2018, require that I give you
information about how I collect information on individuals, and the policies I have in place to manage
the storage and management of that information.
What information do I collect?
At the start of counselling for all clients, I complete a paper registration form to provide me with
the following information:
- Name, address, telephone numbers and email address.
- An agreed method of communication, if possible consent to leave messages, and how any messages can
be left.
- Name and contact telephone number for next of kin, in case of an emergency. This is optional.
- Any medical conditions you may have that I need to be aware of in order to ensure your safety during
the counselling sessions.
- Name of your GP and name of his or her practice in case of emergency.
- Voluntary information about medication you may be taking related to mental health.
The paper registration form remains confidential and is kept securely in a locked metal filing cabinet
to which I hold the only key.
Other information collected
I write brief notes from counselling sessions, to help me remember some of the things we spoke of in
the session. These are as I remember, so may not be accurate and therefore of no use to anyone else.
I will not share your information with any person or organisation unless you wish me to and I have
your consent to do so, other than the following exceptions:
- If I consider your life, or someone else's life, is at risk. In this event, I would encourage you
to speak to your GP, however I reserve the right to breach confidentiality if I fear a life is
threatened.
- I am in regular supervision with a senior practitioner, who will wish to know how many clients I
am currently working with. Clients would be identified by their first name only, unless they
had reason to complain and then they could be traced by my paper records and identified if need
be. My supervisor is bound by Data Protection Regulations.
I do not keep computerised records. Any information I keep is kept in paper form in a lockable metal
filing cabinet for which I hold the only key. If I become too ill to work or I die, my daughter is
trusted with the location of the key to the filing cabinet.
Once the work has come to an end, I close the file. The file is then securely stored for ten years, at
which time it will be shredded.
If I should die or become too ill to destroy the files myself, I have a professional will in place with
two colleagues who will come to my office and shred all my notes once they have contacted any clients
who are still in counselling with me. These colleagues have no information relating to my clients.
In the event that I die or become incapacitated they will be contacted by my son or daughter and
carry out my instructions according to my professional will. These colleagues are bound by Data Protection
regulations.
If at any time you wish me to destroy all the information I hold about you, you can contact me and ask
me to destroy all your notes. I will then shred them.
All emails related to my counselling work are received into a specific and separate email account to
which I have sole access.
Your contact information is only used to communicate with you regarding appointments or other matters
directly connected with our counselling relationship. The information is not used for any marketing
purpose.
Cookies
In order to collect the anonymous data described in the preceding paragraph, we may use temporary "cookies"
that remain in the cookies file of your browser until the browser is closed. We consider none of
them to be intrusive to you; in fact some will enhance your experience on our website. The cookies
that we collect are:
Cookie Law Compliance - This cookie is placed if you click the Allow button in the cookie message. It
tells us you have given your consent to the use of cookies on our site and stops this message from
displaying.
Session and Person ID Cookies - These allow us to place you on a more suitable page based on your previous
visits to our website - it will enable you to get to the content we believe you want, quicker. We
collect no personal data that would enable us to physically identify you from this Cookie.
Website Analytics data - We'll not collect data that enable us to identify you. The only cookies which
you may consider could be intrusive are those that identify which county/area of the country you
come from, and if you are a new, or returning visitor.
__utma, __utmb, __utmc and __utmz cookies - We use Google Analytics. They allow us to recognise and count
the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they're using it. This helps
us to improve the way our website works, for example by making sure users are finding what they need
easily.
NID & PREF cookies - These cookies are third party cookies used by Google. Please take a look at
the Google policy to see how they use these cookies. www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
Google re-marketing code - We may use a cookie to track you on other sites and show adverts to you based
on where you have visited on our site. We do this to remind you of our services in case you wish
to come back and buy them. We only use these cookies for 30 days after your last visit to our website.
We do not control these cookies, so these will be unaffected by the choice you make today. You may
opt out of the use of cookies by visiting Google advertising opt-out page. Google AdSense – We use
this cookie to report to us how the adverts shown on our websites are performing. User data is all
anonymous.
You can find out more generally about Google and its policies and principles as regards advertising at
http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/
You Tube cookie - We use this cookie to help maintain the integrity of video statistics, prevent fraud
and improve site and video experience. If you play any of the videos in our website, it will drop
a cookie. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover the identity of the user. A cookie is
a small piece of information which is sent to your browser and stored on your computer's hard drive.
Cookies do not damage your computer. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie.
This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not.
We also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website.
An IP address is a numeric code that identifies your computer on a network, or in this case, the
Internet. Your IP address is also used to gather broad demographic information, such as determining
how many of our visitors are from outside of the UK. We may also perform IP lookups to determine
which domain you are coming from (i.e. aol.com, yourcompany.com) to more accurately gauge our users'
demographics. If you choose to accept these cookies, we believe that it will only enhance your experience
on our website. If you choose to accept these cookies, we can't change that choice for you in the
future. We may add further cookies which we consider to be no intrusive in the future. By agreeing
to the cookies today, you are also agreeing to cookies which we may choose to use in the future.
Links to other sites
Our website may contain hyperlinks to websites that are not operated by us. Any such hyperlinks are provided
for your reference and convenience only and do not imply any endorsement of the activities of these
third-party websites or any association with their operators. We do not control these websites and
are not responsible for their data or privacy practices. We urge you to review any privacy policy
posted on any site you visit before using the site or providing any Personal Data about yourself.
Our website contains hyperlinks to other pages on our website. We may use technology to track how often
these links are used and which pages on our website our visitors choose to view. Again this technology
does not identify you personally – it simply enables us to compile statistics about the use of these
hyperlinks.
Governing Law
This Privacy Policy forms part of our website Terms of Use and as such shall be governed by and construed
in accordance with the laws of England. You agree to submit any dispute arising out of your use of
this website to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
Questions
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or any part of our service, you may contact us by
emailing email@libbyhill.co.uk or telephoning 01379 608738.