This Privacy Policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use our website. It also explains your rights in accordance with current UK data legislation. 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.
Data Control
The Data Controller for The Connectry Private Therapy Practice is Stephanie Blackman Ballard. She is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), registration reference ZB892829, which can be searched for at www.ico.org.uk .
Legal Bases for Processing Personal Data
The GDPR states that lawful bases are required for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which we are processing your data. These are outlined below:
- If you have had therapy with The Connectry and it has finished, we will use legitimate interest as a lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.
- If you are currently having therapy with The Connectry, or if you are in contact with us to consider therapy, we will process your personal data where necessary for the performance of a contract as requested by you.
- The GDPR also makes sure that we look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to us in an appropriate manner. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for us processing any special categories of personal information is for the provision of mental health services and is necessary for a contract between mental health professionals, The Connectry, and you.
- We would process your data If you give us consent to do so for a specific purpose (for example, you might consent to us sending you a newsletter).
- If necessary, we would also process your personal data if we had to comply with a legal obligation.
- We may also ask for information on how you found our service for the purpose of marketing research. No information you provide is passed on without your consent and we will never sell your information to others.
When you consent to our use of information about you for a specific purpose, you have the right to change your mind at any time (but this will not affect any processing that has already taken place).
How information is used
By providing personal information to us, you consent to us collecting, holding and using your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy. If you are under 16 years of age, you must have your parent or legal guardian’s permission to access the website and/or provide us with any of your personal information.
When you initially contact The Connectry via a web-based enquiry form, email or telephone about our therapy services, we will only use your personal information to provide the services you have requested from us. This website uses any personal information it collects in order to respond to enquiries, book appointments or an introductory call, administer therapy services, and as applicable, process payment for such services. The information you provide to us may include name, email address, phone number, referral information, preferred day and time for online introductory meeting and reason(s) for contacting us. Alternatively, a GP or other health professional may send us your details when making a referral, or a parent may give us your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. If you decide not to proceed with our services, we will delete your personal information within 1 month. If you would like us to delete this information sooner, please email therapy@theconnectry.com.
While you are accessing therapy from The Connectry everything discussed between the therapist and you is confidential. Confidentiality will only be broken if the therapist believes you are at risk of harm to yourself or to or from others, if required by law with a Court Order and when anonymously discussing casework with supervisors as part of BACP requirement. In cases where confidentiality must be breached, we would always endeavour to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent it.
We will keep a record of your personal details and written notes to monitor treatment progress, details of which are kept securely stored on encrypted devices and a password-protected computer.
After therapy has ended your records will be kept for 7 years after the final session and are then securely destroyed. If you wish for us to delete your information sooner than this, please get in contact with us.
When you visit our website, our server providers and ISPs may automatically log the standard data provided by your web browser. It may include your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type and version, the pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on each page, and other details. This serves to protect our website and any information we store on our server.
We may also collect data about the device you are using to access our website. This data may include the device type, operating system, unique device identifiers, device settings, and geo-location data. What we collect can depend on the individual settings of your device and software. We recommend checking the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider to learn what information they make available to us.
We use Google Analytics to monitor website traffic. All collected information (like IP address) is anonymous in this respect and does not allow your identification. The use of Google Analytics services involves the implementation of the tracking code provided by Google into our website’s code. This code is based on cookies but may also use other tracking technologies. Details related to the use of information collected by Google as part of our use of Google Analytics as part of our site can be found here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
Third parties
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit. We have no control over the content and policies of those sites, and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.
Storage and Retention of Data
At The Connectry, all efforts are taken to protect the security and confidentiality of client personal data. While we retain this information, we will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, or use or modification. That said, we advise that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure and cannot guarantee absolute data security.
We will only store your personal information for as long as is required in accordance with UK data protection laws. Your personal data will normally be kept for 7 years from the last session before it is destroyed. If you want us to erase your personal data prior to this time, please contact us by emailing therapy@theconnectry.com.
Disclosures of your personal data
We hold information about each of our clients and the therapy they receive in confidence. This means that we will not normally share your/your child’s personal information with anyone else (other than our administrators and clinicians).
We require any third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. We use Calendly for scheduling purposes, Google Meet for introductory calls, and when applicable, Stripe, Barclay card reader and/or FreshBooks, for any invoice or payment processing. External professional advisers (such as our accountant) may be given access to our invoicing software.
There also may be exceptions to this if we need to liaise with other parties. For example, if you/your child are/is referred by a health insurance provider, or claim through a health insurance policy to fund therapy, then we will share appointment schedules with that organisation for billing purposes. We may also share information with that organisation to provide treatment updates. If you would like us to share information about your/your child’s treatment with outside organisations that are directly involved in your/your child’s care/case, for example, your GP or psychiatrist, or your child’s school, we will require your written consent. We might need to share personal information with relevant authorities in exceptional circumstances such as when there is need-to-know information for another health provider, like your GP, if disclosure is in the public interest, to prevent a miscarriage of justice, or where there is a legal duty, for instance a Court Order. When the information concerns a risk of harm to the client, or risk of harm to another adult or a child, we will discuss such a proposed disclosure with you unless we believe that to do so could increase the level of risk to you or to someone else.
Use of Cookies
We use cookies to collect information about you and your activity across our website. A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to tailor their operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer, use this link to help show you how. Please note that removing cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
No information is gathered through the use or operation of this website that can identify visitors to the site. Anonymous visitor statistics are collected to measure the level of site traffic and the usefulness of the psychotherapy information contained herein.
Changes to this policy
We may amend this Privacy Policy at our discretion to reflect current acceptable and updated practices without notice to you, in which case, we will publish the amended version on our website. You confirm that we shall not be liable to you or any third party for any change to this Privacy Policy. It is your responsibility to check regularly to determine whether this Privacy Policy has changed. Your continued use of this site after any changes to this policy will be regarded as acceptance of our practices around privacy and personal information.
Your Legal Rights
We want to make sure you are in control of how we use and keep your information. You have the following rights:
Right to be informed
You have a right to know what information we will be collecting, why we need this data and how we will use it in your practice.
Right to restrict
You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information. If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us at therapy@theconnectry.com . If you ask us to restrict or limit how we process your personal information, we will advise on how the restriction affects your use of our website.
Right to access and data portability
You may request details of personal information we hold about you. Where possible, we will provide this information in easily readable machine format. You may also request that we transfer this personal information to another third party.
Right to Correction
You can request correction of personal data that we have. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you (or your child) corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide us.
Right to Object
You have the right to object to your data being used in any other way than what was agreed upon at the start of the therapy process.
Erasure
You may request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing, where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your erasure request for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Notification of data breaches
We will comply with laws applicable to us in respect of any data breach.
Complaints
The Connectry aims to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. If you believe that we have breached a relevant data protection law and wish to make a complaint, please contact us at therapy@theconnectry.com . If you believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you have the right to raise your complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Further information
If you would like any more information or you have any comments about our Privacy Policy, please email us at therapy@theconnectry.com.