Kirsteen Kamming Psychotherapy is committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of clients. We comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations.
This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information, how we use it and how we keep it secure.
We review this policy regularly and where necessary make updates to ensure it accurately reflects how we use your data. We will notify you if there are changes which affect how your data is processed.
We hope this policy helps you to understand how we use your data. If you have any questions you can contact us by one of the following methods:
Email to: info@kammingpsychotherapy.com
What information do we collect?
Cookies
Like many other websites, our website uses cookies. 'Cookies' are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.
When you use our website we obtain information about you from cookies which tell us your IP address, when you visited our website and which pages you looked at.
It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. If you would like to turn cookies off you can do so by clicking ‘no’ when prompted by our cookie notice. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website. As an example, if you turn off cookies, some information like anonymised ‘User ID’s’ for logging into systems will not be retained, so you will need to retype them each time.
Cookies are stored for a maximum of two years, though most expire much sooner.
Website enquiries
If you use our website enquiry service we will ask you to provide us with your name, a method of contacting you and information about your enquiry into our clinical services. We will only use this information to respond to your enquiry.
Enquiries are kept for a maximum of 2 years.
Clinical Services
We will collect information from you when you register and when you attend one of our clinical services. By providing this information you consent to the data being used as described below. When you register we will ask you to provide personal contact details including name and contact information (email address, postal address and phone number) and your date of birth. We use this information to identify whether you have previously attended therapy with us and to enable us to contact you regarding your therapy. We will also ask you whether you are attending with a partner and whether you have any accessibility requirements, this is to make sure we are prepared for your visit and whether it is a couple or individual consultation.
If you have been referred by another professional such as your GP, they may provide the registration information to us on your behalf. In some circumstances the referrer may also include a brief summary of why the referral is being made which, depending on the service, may include sensitive personal data relating to health or sexual relationships. If this is the case we will write to you to make you aware of, and to ensure you consent to, the referral to our therapeutic services. We will do this in our first communication to you within 30 days of receiving the referral.
When you register for our clinical service we will ask you to provide the contact details for your General Practitioner (GP). We do not make contact with the GP on a regular basis. In some circumstances it may be helpful to contact your GP to arrange better coordinated care. We would usually discuss this with you beforehand.
Due to the nature of therapy, during the consultation and ongoing sessions you will discuss with your therapist personal and sensitive information relating to your relationships and your family. We record a brief summary of each therapy session and any key themes in the therapy. The records may also reference sensitive personal data such as information on health and sexual relationships which is relevant to the relationship therapy. Sensitive and personal information is kept under strictly confidential procedures, designed to satisfy both strict data protection and professional bodies’ regulations.
Correspondence between you and Kirsteen Kamming Psychotherapy will usually be retained as part of your clinical file.
Marketing
We do not contact clients for marketing purposes. When you end therapy you will be given the option to be contacted as a Service User to give feedback to help us develop our clinical services. We will only contact you regarding service development if you have given your consent.
How long do you keep my data?
The data belonging to clients in our clinical service will usually be retained for 8 years after which time it is confidentially destroyed. In exceptional circumstances, for example where clients return for further therapy, we may retain your clinical information for longer- in which case we will notify you.
Who do you share my information with?
We will never sell or rent your information to third parties for marketing purposes.
In relation to your therapy, Kirsteen Kamming Psychotherapy adheres to a professional code of ethical standards which includes the principle of confidentiality. This means that we would not disclose information about you to a third party without your agreement, except in situations where there was significant concern about harm to you or someone else and this would normally be discussed with you beforehand.
If you come as a couple we would normally expect that information can be shared between you. If you have any questions about confidentiality you can discuss them with your therapist.
Zoom
Kirsteen Kamming Psychotherapy offers online couple and individual therapy via the ZOOM platform which is a secure, confidential and reliable video software platform. Kirsteen Kamming Psychotherapy aims to provide the highest practical levels of client confidentiality protection by using Zoom which uses end to end encryption and is GDPR and HIPAA compliant. We regret we are unable to guarantee complete confidentiality under all circumstances. Monitoring or intrusion by state agencies or by computer service providers operating under state direction may in certain jurisdictions pose a threat to client confidentiality.
Keeping your data secure
We ensure that access to your personal data is restricted to members of staff who require access as part of delivering our therapeutic service. Where possible Tavistock Relationships will use unique identification numbers rather than names this is in order to protect your identity.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other third party websites. This privacy policy applies only to this website and we would ask you to read the privacy policy and notices of any other websites you visit via links from our website.
Your rights
The GDPR gives you certain rights in relation to the data we hold about you. You can exercise the rights outlined below by contacting us:
Email to info@kammingpsychotherapy.com
Under the GDPR you can:
- Find out what information we hold about you
- Access a copy of the information we hold about you
- Rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data
- Have the right to object to our processing of your personal information
- Ask us to delete or restrict how we use your personal information, but this right is determined by applicable law
- Have your registration information (if registering using our online booking system) sent to another provider
- Have the right to appropriate decision making (TR does not use automated profiling or decision making)
- Complain to a regulator if you think we have not complied with data protection laws. You can lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office https://ico.org.uk/concerns/