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05th December 2024 
Privacy notice for my Gestalt Therapy & Counselling practice


I understand that all visitors to my website are entitled to know that their personal data will not be used for any purpose unintended by them, and will not accidentally fall into the hands of a third party.

I take the protection of your privacy and confidentiality very seriously and undertake to preserve the confidentiality of all information you provide. I also hope that you do the same in return. I regret that if there are some points with which you are not happy, your only recourse is to leave my website.

If you use my services in professional capacity as a psychotherapist or supervisor, or you are a visitor to my website as a prospective client, this page explains how I record and use your personal data. My policy complies with UK law and requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Information that I keep about you.

If you enter counselling, psychotherapy, supervision or any other form of professional contract with me I will keep a record of your name and contact details (telephone number, email and postal address).

I will check with you that the information I keep about you is accurate. Please keep me informed about any changes.

In addition, I record your attendance and hold accounts of your payments to me for my services. This data is encoded so you will not be personally identifiable.

Information I process with your consent

To clarify some of my basic expectations and responsibilities about our contract, when we first meet, I will supply an information sheet about all these aspects of my practice. My practice policies can be previewed here. At any time, you are welcome to discuss with me any of the above procedures that you may be concerned or feel unclear about for any reason.

I will ask you to read and sign a copy for my records together with the consent for me to keep your personal information.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by writing to me by email, but if you do so, I shall not be able to provide my services further.

How to communicate with me

I ask all my clients and potential clients to keep their personal information to a minimum on any emails, voice mail and texts as these communications are not secured. Unless I hear from you to the contrary, I will delete all messages from you and to you at regular intervals, and will not save this to other media.

On occasion, I may write or respond to your communications between sessions, usually by phone, text or email, but this will be kept to the necessary minimum.

Only in exceptional circumstances, when on your behalf, I may need to contact other professionals (i.e. GP, psychiatrist, your insurer, or emergency services), I will do it on your clear request or with your prior permission. If it happens, I will keep their contact details and dates when such contact takes place).


How I store your details

Except where you have consented to my use of your information for a specific purpose, I do not record, store or use your information in any way that would identify you personally.

I will store your data in paper or electronic form (or both). I will store paper records in a locked cabinet. I will store electronic data on one or more devices that are password protected.


What confidentiality means

Confidentiality is important in therapy. I keep the content of what is shared in the sessions confidential. This means I do not share or discuss it with anyone else.

Having said that, I may verbally refer to the issues that arise in my clinical work with you in the meetings with my supervisor/s, which is a requirement of my good professional practice. I will endeavour to keep all identifiable information from the content of these meetings.

We are all subject to the law of the land. Therefore, in extremely rare circumstances, I have a legal obligation to break confidentiality and share information as required by the relevant legal authorities and in compliance with the regulatory professional bodies I belong to, like UKCP and BACP.

Such circumstances include those where I believe that you may be at risk of serious harm to yourself. If you tell me that you are involved in serious criminal activity I also may have a responsibility to inform relevant authorities.

If in extreme case when I can no longer work, my clinical executor keeps a copy of your contact details. This is so that he can contact you should I become incapacitated or in the event of my death.


How long I keep your contact details for

Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, I keep your personal information only for as long as required to provide you with the services you have requested, to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by my tax authorities, and as stated in my indemnity insurance.

If you would like me to delete you from my records sooner than this after we have stopped working together, please let me know. Providing there are no outstanding matters (such as payment arrears), then I would be happy to arrange this.

If you have any question regarding the privacy policy, please contact me directly by email.


When you contact me

When you contact me, whether by phone, post, through the website or by email, I collect the data you have given to me in order to reply with the information you need. I record your request and my reply in order to increase the efficiency. All calls, voicemail messages, emails and correspondence are treated in the strictest confidence and records destroyed in a manner that preserves your confidentiality.

I may only keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communication to provide a high quality service.


How you can complain about my privacy policy

If you have any questions or are not happy with my privacy policy or if you have a complaint about how I process your personal information then you can tell me this by email. My email address is: gestaltpsychotherapy@gmail.com.

If a dispute is not settled then I hope you will agree to try to resolve it by engaging in good faith with me in a process of mediation or arbitration. You have also a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office.

My privacy policy has been compiled so as to comply with the laws of the legal jurisdictions in the UK and the European Union. If you think it fails to satisfy any of these laws, I should like to hear from you.