To safely and appropriately provide you with counselling, we need to collect personal data from you and Contemporary Therapy Network (CTN) needs your written consent to collect this data.
Counselling is a confidential process and we will not reveal your personal data or the content of your sessions to a third party without your express permission. The only exceptions to this would be if you were threatening your own life or the life of another, if there was a safeguarding issue or you were involved in a crime that falls outside of counselling confidentiality boundaries. In these cases, CTN may decide to contact emergency services or relevant authorities without your permission.
This privacy policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, where we keep it, how long we keep it for and the procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy.
When you make your initial contact with CTN we collect the following information from you:
If you choose to proceed from an enquiry, the following information will be collected via our Pre-Assessment Form:
The Pre-Assessment Form does not identify you and will be destroyed should you or the service decide not to proceed with therapy.
If you are placed with a therapist in our service after the Pre-Assessment Form stage, the following information will be collected via our Pre-Therapy Documents:
In your assessment session your therapist will collect and record this information on our Client Assessment Form:
During your therapy your therapist will keep brief notes of each session to record the content of the session and any homework tasks that may have been agreed.
Any emails relating to your therapy are kept on your therapist’s password-protected computer and on an encrypted email service.
Your Registration Form, Pre-Assessment Form and Full Assessment form and your Session Notes are kept in a service password protected DropBox folder.
Your phone number will be stored in your therapist’s mobile phone under your initials.
Only your allocated therapist, the Practice Manager and the Clinical Director have access to your records.
CTN destroys computer records of your enquiry on completion of your therapy. Other notes are kept in locked filing cabinets for a minimum of 7 years, in line with guidance from insurers, after which point they are shredded. Your records are not classed as medical records or public records.
All electronic communication is stored on password protected laptops. Your registration information and all other documentation is identified by your initials only.
You will not be personally identified in any reports that monitor and measure the effectiveness of our service.
Your therapist has regular supervision to ensure that they are providing the best standards of care for you. You are identified in supervision by your first name or initials only. Supervisors may keep records of the guidance they have offered which would not be directly identifiable to you and which would be stored in line with their individual Privacy Policies. Supervisors do not have access to your data other than in the instance of your therapist becoming incapacitated, at which point they would enact the therapist’s Clinical Will (see Client Agreement).
Should you wish to access your data or have it destroyed before 7 years have elapsed you may submit your request to CTN in writing. Each application will be considered on an individual basis and any decision to provide access to or destroy your personal data will be reached only after consultation with our insurers and professional bodies. Any documents pertaining to couples work will require the written permission of both parties before being shared.
CTN strives to do our utmost to protect your data. However, in the event of a personal data breach the following actions will be taken.
