Therapy program

Privacy Policy

Discover a path to ease your struggles with anxiety, depression, addiction, grief, or trauma through professional therapy. Therapy is a valuable gift to oneself, and your well-being is at the heart of my approach.

The Lawful Basis for Holding And Using Your Personal Information

The 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 that it is for the provision of health treatment (in this case Therapy) and necessary for a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).

How I use your information

Initial contact.

When you contact me with an enquiry about my Therapy services, I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your contact details and any biographic information you share with me(such as age, gender identity, etc.). Alternatively, your primary carer (if you are under age 18 / considered a vulnerable adult), or your GP or other health professionals may send me your details when making a referral, or another 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 7 days. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know.

While you are accessing Therapy.

Initial contact.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken unless safeguarding or other legal obligations dictate disclosure. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.
Deleted: I will keep a record of your personal details to help the therapy services run smoothly. I will keep written notes of sessions. These details are kept securely on password encrypted digital devices and in locked cabinets and are not shared with any third party.
Deleted: For security reasons, I do not retain text messages for more than 24 months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message, I will transcribe it into notes. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 36 months if it is not important.

After therapy has ended.

Once therapy has ended your records will be kept for 5 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.

Third-party recipients of personal data

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry (e.g. NHS IAPT services) out specific tasks. In such cases, I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they can do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

Your rights

I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. 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.

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 its, 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 info@cascadetherapy.co.uk.

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.

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. e.g. I use encrypted devices, locked filing cabinet etc.