Privacy Policy

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To safely and appropriately provide you with counselling we need to collect personal data from you and we need your written consent to collect this data. You will be given a copy of our Privacy Policy to read and sign prior to your therapy starting. If the client is under the age of 16, the signing must be completed by a parent or guardian. 

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Counselling is a confidential process and we do not reveal your personal data, or the content of your sessions, to a third party without your express permission. The only exceptions to this would be if you were threatening your own life or the life of another, there was a safeguarding issue or you were involved in a crime that falls outside of counselling confidentiality boundaries. In these cases, we may decide to contact emergency services or relevant authorities without your permission.

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This privacy policy also explains what information we collect, how we use it, where we keep it, how long we keep it for and the procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy.

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When you contact us via our website contact submission form, email or via telephone you give us:

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• Your name

• Your email address

• Your phone number 

• A reason for your enquiry

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We collect this information for the following reasons:

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• To ensure we can identify you easily within our caseload, maintaining complete confidentiality for you and your data

• To monitor and measure the effectiveness of our service

• To identify all potential factors that may be contributing to the problem you are seeking help with, and that we are adequately trained in that area

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This website doesn’t store any personal details. After you fill out the contact form online all further communication will be via phone and email. Please also refer to our cookies policy, for further information.

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Our mobile phones & laptops are passcode protected so cannot be accessed without access to these codes. Our business phones are not our personal phones so are only kept with us whilst we are working. Any personal travel does not involve taking business phones outside of our home addresss. 

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Our email addresses are also password protected and all emails remain completely confidential. Our email addresses are solely for business so you will not have your details passed onto any 3rd parties or receive spam notices. In the unlikely event you receive any emails received in error you are required to return them to the sender immediately and permanently delete them.

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If you choose to go ahead with therapy you will be asked to fill out & sign all documentation via our online signature software HelloSign. This means you can sign the documentation online, without needing to print off the documents & scan back to us. To complete this process, you will receive an email which will prompt you to sign the necessary documents. Once you have completed the signing process you will receive a confirmation email with your copy of the signed documents. In order to protect your data, it is recommended you do not forward this email; however, you can choose to do so at your own risk. You will not be required to sign up for a HelloSign account & their individual privacy policy can be found here: https://gb.hellosign.com/privacy?_ga=2.29713846.848962454.1597831836-1358798338.1595328209 

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Payments for sessions are made using on our online invoicing and credit card payment system Square or cash. You will either pay for your sessions on the day using a credit or debit card or be sent an email on the day of the session containing your invoice, which you can also pay using a credit or debit card. If you pay for your sessions on the day your card details will not be stored on our Square account. You have the capability to store your card details if you pay via invoices to avoid entering your details each time. Your invoice will be called “Therapy Session” and the reference will be a mixture of our initials and the number of the session, for example LSWW001. When you pay for your invoices, paying by Visa or Mastercard, the following will be displayed on your bank statement, if you see our director Lauren Street “SQ *Lauren Street*”. If you see anyone else within the Green Chair team it'll show "SQ *GCCS*" or "SQ *(your therapist's name)*". If you are paying via American Express, the following will be displayed “SQUAREUP EUROPE” irrespective of who you see on our team. The privacy & security notice for Square can be found here: https://squareup.com/help/gb/en/article/3796-privacy-and-security  

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Square also has an appointment scheduling tool which our team uses to keep their diaries up to date, Carole Salter uses Power Diary to keep her diary up to date. The details you provide will also be used for our scheduling tools so that we can easily identify our daily appointments and make any necessary changes. You will also be sent timely reminders for your appointments via email so that you can keep track of your scheduled appointments. These tools do not allow you to cancel or book appointments online. You will need to do this your therapist directly and may be subject to late cancellation fees in the appropriate notice isn’t given. This is outlined further in clause 3.4 of your Therapy Contract.

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We all have accounts with Kiku or Power Diary that gives us capability to store our clinical notes, your completed documents and all other paperwork stored securely online. Once you have completed our necessary paperwork, we will create a profile for you on our online software provider, using only the information you give, so that we can keep your records up to date. If you are a returning client of Lauren Street's who started sessions prior to 11th July 2022 your original paperwork will be uploaded to your newly created profile in addition to your updated signed paperwork and the original paper copies will be immediately shredded. If you’re a new client of Lauren Street's with no prior sessions before 11th July 2022 your data will be solely held within Kiku. Their privacy policies can be found here: https://www.wearekiku.com/privacy-notices  https://www.powerdiary.com/uk/privacy-policy/

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We keep logs of all sessions with my clients. This log is purely the date of the session and a brief overview of the session theme. This will be filled out via your Kiku or Power Diary profile.

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Once you have completed signing the documents via HelloSign we will log into our account & download your documents. We will then create your Kiku or Power Diary profile so your data will be stored within this online provider. Both meet UK GDPR regulations in full for storage of mental health records, Kiku/ Power Diary, and personal data, Kiku/ Power Diary & Square. In the unlikely event of the death or incapacitation of your therapist there are written instructions as to how your data can be accessed so your work can continue with an alternative therapist, should you wish for this to happen.

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Your data will be stored in the same location for 7 years after our therapy has ended, as per our insurance policies. Once the 7 years has passed, all documents we have relating to our work will be deleted. Your records are not classed as medical records or public records.

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Once we have ended, we will delete your phone number and email address from our phone and laptop, however, we will archive all conversations for the same duration as we keep your notes. Once we delete your notes, we shall also delete your email and text conversations.

 

You have the right to be informed about the information we collect and store as well as the methods we use for storing it. You also have the right to access the information we store. Should you wish to do this please contact your therapist to access this information with no questions asked. Please note we legally have 28 days to respond to your request, however, we will aim to do this as soon as we'reable to within the 28-day period.

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You are entitled to ask for the records relating to our work together to be deleted within the 7-year period after our therapy has ended. Each application to do so will be considered on an individual basis and we will provide you with a decision to either accept or decline your request within 28 days. In order to make this decision we have to have authorisation from our insurers and membership bodies.

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The Coronavirus contact tracing process has now ceased. Should it restart again we may be required to share your contact details with contact tracers if your therapist, or someone they've been in contact with develops Covid-19. No details regarding the nature of our work will be shared.​

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Green Chair Counselling Service strives to do its utmost to protect your data. However, in the event of a personal data breach the below action will be taken:

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• All breaches will be reported to you without delay

• A record of any personal data breaches will be kept

• The ICO will be informed in writing. Lauren's registration number is ZA463997

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If you feel Lauren's handling of any data breach isn’t satisfactory you are within your rights to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioners Office.

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Data controller is Lauren Street and she can be contacted at laurenstreetcounselling@yahoo.com

 

Green Chair Counselling Service Ltd registered address:

54-56 Victoria Street

St Albans

Hertfordshire

AL1 3HZ