Confidentiality is really important and you can trust Anita to be professional. The private room for face-to-face sessions are at Anita’s home in Lindale, Grange over Sands, Cumbria or you can have online counselling via zoom.
Below you’ll find an overview of what to expect in regards to confidentiality, privacy, your data and the exceptions to the rules.
General
Details of information that is held
If you do decide to attend therapy with Anita, she will hold your personal data in the form of a self- referral form (which includes name, address, date of birth, your sexual orientation, gender, religion as well as your Doctors contact details, and next of kin and whether or not you are disabled (and if so, your access requirements). Within this document there is a section as to why you wish to attend therapy, and confirmation that you as the client are signing and agreeing to the terms of conditions for the therapeutic relationship.
During the sessions there will also be additional worksheets and hand written sessional notes that Anita will make in relation to the issues and progress of the session, which will be stored in a safe, confidential place.
Sharing your data
Overall nobody has access to your data unless you authorise this to happen. The only time the confidentiality would be breached would be if there was a risk to you or others. This would be discussed with you first that this was taking place.
Data may be shared with other agencies also if it was a legal requirement e.g. terrorism, drug/money laundering or via Court Order for disclosure.
As a therapist, Anita has clinical supervision during which your situation maybe shared with a clinical supervisor to ensure that she is providing the highest quality service to you. This is in accordance with the 2018 BACP ethical framework for counselling professions.
Subject Access Request
You are entitled to receive a copy of the data that Anita Lonsdale Therapy Services holds about you free of charge in a paper or electronic format. If required, please make a request in writing.
What will happen to your data when Anita is no longer working with you
Any correspondence will be printed and held on your file and any electronic data will be deleted. As an adult, your file/data will be held for six years. It then will then be deleted or securely destroyed. If you are a young person/child, this data is held until you are an adult at 18, held for a further six years and then deleted and securely destroyed accordingly.
Data privacy
The Data Protection Act (DPA) has governed data Protection in the UK since 1998.
This Act is changing again from May 2018 under the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) on how organisations comply with theses principles, as to being more clearer as to what data is stored by that organisation/company, how its processed, what data is shared to other parties and how long the data is stored for.
Who is responsible for your data
Private Counselling – individual or couple
Within Anita Lonsdale Therapy Services the data controller is Anita Lonsdale who is registered at the Information Commissioners Office for all her personal clients.
This means that Anita, and the organisation, is legally accountable for keeping any data of clients safe and secure as well as acting within the law to ensure that your rights of a client are maintained.
Employee Assisted Programme
If however you are seeing me through an Employee Assisted Programme (e.g. BUPA, Nuffield Health, Wellbeing Solutions), they are the data controller and registered with the ICO. However, please be assured that any data that Anita stores within her practice is held in a safe and confidential place and some information is shared with the EAP organisation as per their regulations and would be discussed with you before the therapy commences.
School Counselling
Anita is the data controller of the notes of the sessions with a young person/child. Her notes are confidential and are securely held by her. However, initial request forms for counselling submitted by teachers are under the data control of the school.
If you have any queries relating to your data, please feel free to discuss anything with Anita further.
anitalonsdaletherapy.com 