Confidentiality & Privacy 

​Confidentiality

 

What you share with me in counselling or supervision is treated as confidential.

 

I receive regular professional supervision as part of my ethical practice. I may discuss aspects of my work with my supervisor, but I take care to protect your identity and only share information that is relevant to the purpose of supervision.

 

There are some circumstances in which confidentiality may need to be broken. These include situations where I believe there is a serious risk of harm to you or another person, where there are safeguarding concerns, or where I am legally required to disclose information.

 

Wherever it is safe and reasonably possible to do so, I would aim to discuss this with you before making a disclosure. Any information disclosed would be limited to what is necessary.

 

Information I collect

 

In order to provide counselling or supervision, I may collect and hold information including:

 

• your name and contact details

• emergency contact information where provided

• information you give me during our initial contact and assessment

• information relating to appointments, attendance and payments

• relevant correspondence between us

• brief clinical or supervision notes

• information you choose to share about your physical or mental health, relationships, identity, personal history or circumstances.

 

Some of this information is classed as special category data under data protection law because of its sensitive nature.

 

I aim to collect and retain only information that is relevant and necessary for providing a safe, effective and professionally accountable service.

 

Why I use your information

 

I use personal information where it is necessary to provide and administer the professional service we have agreed, to maintain appropriate professional records, to communicate with you, to manage appointments and payments, and to meet my professional, ethical, insurance and legal responsibilities.

 

My lawful basis for processing personal information will depend upon the purpose for which it is being used. This may include performance of our contract, compliance with a legal obligation and my legitimate interests in operating a safe and professionally accountable counselling and supervision practice.

 

Because counselling records may contain information concerning health and other sensitive aspects of a person’s life, I also identify an appropriate condition under UK data protection law for processing special category data.

 

Where I specifically rely upon your consent for a particular use of information, you may withdraw that consent.

 

Clinical records

 

I keep brief records of my work. These may include session notes, relevant communications and other information necessary to maintain an appropriate record of the service provided.

 

My notes are intended as professional clinical records rather than a transcript or detailed account of everything discussed in a session. I aim to ensure that they are factual, relevant, proportionate and limited to what is necessary.

 

Identifying information is separated or minimised wherever reasonably possible, and appropriate security measures are used to protect records from unauthorised access.

 

Digital systems and AI-assisted tools

 

I use secure digital systems to support the administration, communication and record-keeping involved in my practice.

 

Some of the professional software I use may include AI-assisted functions. I may use these functions to support limited administrative or record-keeping tasks, such as helping me organise or summarise my own clinical notes.

 

AI does not provide therapy on my behalf, make clinical decisions about you, diagnose you or determine the course of our work together. I remain responsible for my professional judgement, the content of your clinical record and all decisions relating to our work.

 

Before using digital or AI-assisted systems with personal information, I consider how information is processed, stored and protected and seek to minimise identifiable information wherever reasonably possible. I will be transparent with you about relevant uses of these systems and will seek informed consent where this is required.

 

I do not knowingly use client information to train publicly available artificial-intelligence models.

 

Online and telephone work

 

Where we work online, sessions are normally conducted using Zoom or another appropriately secure platform agreed with you.

 

Although reasonable steps are taken to protect privacy when working online, no internet-based communication system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

 

I do not routinely record counselling or supervision sessions. Any recording would only take place following a specific discussion and agreement with you beforehand.

 

Email, text and other communications

 

I may retain relevant emails, messages or other communications where they form part of the professional record of our work.

 

Email and ordinary text messaging cannot be guaranteed to be completely confidential. I therefore recommend avoiding sending highly sensitive information by these methods unless necessary.

 

Storage and security

 

Personal and clinical information is stored using password-protected and appropriately secured systems. Where third-party professional services are used for functions such as practice management, appointments, communication, payments or secure record storage, I take reasonable steps to satisfy myself that appropriate data-protection and security arrangements are in place.

 

Some service providers may process or store information outside the UK. Where this occurs, I take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards for international data transfers are in place.

 

I do not sell your personal information or provide it to third parties for marketing purposes.

 

How long I keep information

 

I retain clinical records for a period appropriate to my professional, legal and insurance responsibilities. My usual retention period is seven years after our work ends, after which records are securely deleted or destroyed unless there is a legitimate reason why they need to be retained for longer.

 

Information that is no longer required is deleted or securely destroyed in accordance with my retention arrangements.

 

Clinical will

 

I have arrangements in place to protect clients should I unexpectedly become unable to practise, for example through serious illness or death.

 

A nominated professional colleague may be given limited access to the information necessary to identify and contact current clients and supervise the secure management of relevant records. They are bound by professional and confidentiality requirements and would only access this information if the clinical-will arrangements needed to be activated.

 

Your rights

 

Data protection law gives you rights in relation to your personal information. Depending upon the circumstances, these may include the right to:

 

• ask what personal information I hold about you and request a copy

• ask for inaccurate information to be corrected

• ask for information to be deleted in certain circumstances

• ask for processing to be restricted

• object to certain uses of your information

• withdraw consent where consent is the basis on which information is being processed.

 

Some rights are not absolute. For example, I may need to retain certain clinical records where there is a professional, legal or insurance reason for doing so.

 

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact me.

 

Concerns or complaints about your information

 

If you have a concern about how I have collected, used, stored or protected your personal information, please contact me in the first instance. I will take your concern seriously and respond in accordance with my data-protection responsibilities.

 

You also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for data protection.

 

Website information

 

When you use my website, limited technical information may be collected automatically through cookies or similar technologies. This may include information such as the type of device or browser being used and how visitors interact with the website.

 

Where cookies or analytics are used, these are managed in accordance with the website’s cookie settings and applicable data-protection requirements.

 

Information submitted through a website contact form will be used to respond to your enquiry and, where appropriate, to arrange counselling or supervision.

 

Keeping this policy up to date

 

I review this privacy policy periodically and may update it to reflect changes in my professional practice, the systems I use, professional guidance or data protection law.

 

The current version will always be available on my website.

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​Last updated: September 2026

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