Counselling Privacy Policy

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I am a qualified counsellor and a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), working in private practice in the UK.

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, 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. 

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via email on: catherinemcgrathcounselling@gmail.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 [ZB917780].

The personal data I collect

In order to provide effective counselling services and meet my legal obligations, I may collect and process the following personal data:

Identification data: Full name, date of birth, contact details (email, phone number, address)

- GP details (with your consent)

- Emergency contact information

-  Brief anonymised case notes

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. The personal data outlined above are kept securely on a personal laptop only accessible by me, which is encrypted and password protected. All files are anonymised and password protected. 

After counselling has ended

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 7 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

Your rights 

You have a 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. 

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 catherinemcgrathcounsellling@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 writing or 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. 

Published: July 2025