Privacy Notice

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation and this privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended.

‘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 (ZB320378). My phone number is: 07922629546. My email address is: elina.mocane@gmail.com.

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK 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 explained these 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 the performance of our contract.

The GDPR also makes sure 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 consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).

How I use your information

Initial contact

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling and psychotherapy services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your name, telephone number, email address. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf.

If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 30 working days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

While you are accessing counselling and psychotherapy.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential subject to the following exceptions:

The ethical codes for counsellors and psychotherapists require that all counsellors and psychotherapists have clinical supervision for their work. In accordance with this, the only person I would talk to about your sessions is my clinical supervisor who abides by the same rules of confidentiality as I do. Supervision takes place in a confidential setting and the focus is on supporting good practice.
If I have serious concerns about your safety, or the safety of another person, or if there are child protection concerns, confidentiality may be lifted. Wherever possible, I will inform you before any disclosures are made to third parties.
In the case of any unforeseen incident occurring to me, I have instructed a colleague to access my client contact file so that you would be informed of the situation. They would only have access to your name and telephone number/ email address.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on password protected electronic files and are not shared with any third party.

I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept electronically on a password protected file. Both my phone and computer are password protected too.

For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 30 working days. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 30 working days if it is not important. If necessary I will store this information on a password protected electronic file.

After counselling has ended.

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for seven years from the end of our contact with each other and will then be securely destroyed.

Your rights

Your right of access - You have the right to ask me for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask me to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask me to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask me to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us me restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, I have one month to respond to you.

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 elina.mocane@gmail.com. If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by emailing to the contact details given above. 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.

Data security

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. I use encrypted online platform for online sessions and a password protected electronic device for file storage. Each file is further protected by password.

Visitors to my website

When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, Wix.com Ltd. 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 the 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 Wix.com Ltd. 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 Wix.com Ltd. so that I can continually improve my service to you. You can read Wix.com Ltd.privacy notice here https://www.wix.com/about/privacy.

Like most websites, I use cookies to help make my website work and to give you the best possible experience. 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.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are saved on your computer, tablet or mobile phone. I use cookies to store information about how you use my website and to remember any preferences you set.

Analytics cookies

I use analytic tools to collect information about how you use our website, such as what pages you visit, how you got there and what you click on. These cookies do not collect or store any personal information and cannot be used to identify you individually.

I use this information to help me improve the site and ensure that it meets the needs of members and other users.