Privacy Policy
Overview
Positive Mind Clinic takes the security of your personal information very seriously. For the purposes of the GDPR, the ‘data controller’ for Positive Mind Clinic is Dominika Chalder (ICO registration ZA850418).
To make sure your personal information is protected, I have a series of technical and administrative measures in place. I will treat your personal information in a way that is compliant with the DPA and the GDPR.
This privacy policy outlines your rights, and my obligations to you, with regard to the recording and storage of your personal information. In this privacy policy, I will let you know what information I need to collect from you before we begin therapy, and what information I need to collect from you during therapy. I will also set out how I will look after your personal information, for how long I will store it, and who I will share it with. In addition, I will let you know what you are able to request from me with regard to this information.
I will update this privacy policy from time-to-time. When I do change the policy (in a significant way), I will post an update on the Positive Mind Clinic website.
This privacy policy covers:
- How I collect personal data
- What personal data I collect
- How I store your personal information
- How I use your personal information
- Disclosure to 3rd parties
- Accuracy and retention of personal information
- Your individual rights
- How I use Cookies
- Social Media Policy
1. How I collect personal data
You may be asked to provide your personal information anytime you are in contact with me. I will collect your personal information in the following ways: via the contact form on my website: www.positivemindclinc.co.uk, over the telephone, in writing, and during our meetings (online or in-person). You are not required to provide the personal information that I may request, but, if you chose not to do so, in many cases I will not be able to provide you with appropriate services or respond to any queries you may have.
2. What personal data I collect
I will collect a variety of information about you and in several different ways. For instance, when you visit www.positivemindclinic.co.uk or .com I will collect the following information about your visit: I.P. address, location, search engine, date, time, web pages visited, operating system, and device. To know more please see section 8 – How I use Cookies.
If you request a call-back via the web form, I will collect the following information: name, email, date, and time.
Special category and sensitive information
Given the nature of healthcare related data, some of the information you may share with me is likely to be classified as sensitive. I’m legally required to take strong measures to protect your confidentiality with any of the following sensitive information that would be important for me to know in order to help you:
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- Your mental and physical health
- Use of alcohol, prescribed and non-prescribed drug use
- Any criminal offences or alleged offences
If you choose to share any information with me about your relationship or sexual history or orientation, your family, lifestyle, employment, religion or cultural background, this is also respected as ‘sensitive’.
In order to lawfully process special category information, I am obliged to identify a specific condition for processing it under Article 9 of the GDPR and communicate this to you. With this in mind, the condition of the GDPR that I apply to the processing of your special category information is that it is ‘pursuant to contract with a health professional’. This means that, if you begin therapy with me, or ask me to assess whether or not you are eligible for me to offer therapy to you, then I will likely need to process some special category information about you. Usually, this is information about your mental health, and I need to process it in order to fulfil my contractual obligations to you in delivering safe, effective therapy.
Before committing to provide you with therapy services, I will ask you during the free initial consultation to provide me with the following information: name, telephone number, address, employment, availability, age, family structure, the psychological issues that you would like to address, goals for therapy and symptoms. The purpose of your free initial consultation is to create a therapy plan that fits your needs, inform you about any contra-indications, find out if we can work together, for you to ask any questions about my approach, and for me to provide you with some information about the ways in which I could assist. Having a simple overview of your current situation and issues, and what you want from sessions, can be helpful to ascertain if I am best placed to work with you. I will also ask about your general health and physical issues, current medication, alcohol and drug use, appetite and sleep. I’ll only keep your information if I have the capacity to respond and be of help to you.
Once we have agreed that therapy with me is right for you, and your therapy commences, I will collect further information from you that may include: your G.P. and next of Kin contact details, previous therapy, previous criminal convictions, network of support and overview of your family situation.
On occasion, with your prior knowledge and consent, I may have reason to ask to obtain information from other healthcare providers involved in your care, for example if you are working with a psychologist, psychiatrist or another therapist. This will only be to ensure I am providing the most appropriate, safe, responsive and effective therapy for your needs.
3. How I store your personal information
I will store your personal information both electronically and physically. Information stored electronically is kept on devices that are password and/or fingerprint I.D. protected, and in files that are further encrypted/password protected and only accessible by me. Names and contact details are stored physically in a paper format and separately to other personal information which is anonymised and kept in a paper format. Information stored physically using paper records is held securely in locked storage. These records are also only accessible by me.
I do not share my devices or passwords with anyone else. In the unfortunate event of me being unable to work (death, serious illness etc.) other therapist who is my supervisor and the executor of my ‘Professional Will’ has the permission to access my current client list.
I do not record phone or on-line sessions. If you wish to record a session to help you remember, you’re welcome to do so, but the data is then your responsibility
4. How I use your personal information
I only use information about you in ways that are core or legally essential for me to fulfil my role as an effective, safe, ethical and responsive therapist to you. The personal information I collect and store about you allows me to:
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- provide the service to you that is properly responsive to your specific circumstances and needs.
- make safe and effective clinical and therapeutic decisions
- respond to you in the most considerate way
- communicate openly with one another to make wise and appropriate decisions together in a teamwork approach
With regards to personal and sensitive information, I don’t need to have a written record of everything you share with me. I keep my note-taking to a minimum which is anonymised.
There is some information that I must, legally, have a written record of, if it is in direct relation to your safety or the safety others, such as emergency contact information, or information related to suicide risk, child protection, domestic abuse, or other violent crime, or should I ever need to account for my clinical decisions and/or respond to complaints.
5. Disclosure to third parties
I will never share your information with any third party – unless you have explicitly told me that you would like me to, in order to help you get good support or healthcare.
I will not sell, share or give information to third parties for marketing purposes.
Who I may need to share your information with
There may be occasions when I need to share personal or sensitive information about you with third parties, specifically, your insurance company or other health professionals involved in your care. When I do so, I comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).
Your insurance company
If you are claiming the cost of your sessions through your insurance company, your insurance company may request details of your treatment and progress from me in order to authorise further funding for your treatment. I will share the minimum amount of information necessary with your insurance company.
Specialist healthcare providers
If there is a specialist healthcare provider, such as a consultant physician or psychiatrist, NHS mental health service, dietician or nutritionist, psychologist or other therapist involved in your care, and your treatment with them could be negatively impacted if they did not know you were working with me, I consider this very carefully. I will always ask you for your consent before sharing any personal or sensitive information when liaising with other health professionals who may be involved in your care.
I will always ask you for your consent before making appropriate referrals to other healthcare providers.
I will also check with you what information you do and do not wish for me to share. I only share sensitive information that would be of direct importance to your healthcare i.e. directly relevant to you getting the most appropriate treatment for your needs. I would ensure you have a copy of any email or report I send.
General practitioners (your GP)
It is not typically necessary for me to contact a client’s General Practitioner, unless you and I have concerns about the medication or treatment that a general practitioner may be prescribing you, or if your GP is the gateway to enable you to access other healthcare that you need. If I share any information with your GP it will be in written form, in explicit consultation and collaboration with you, with the purpose of you getting better quality health care. I would ensure you have the opportunity to edit before it is sent and that you have a copy of the final draft.
Professional supervision
I am required to have regular consultations with my professional supervisor as part of my ongoing accreditation with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). I never disclose any personally identifying information about my clients within supervision unless there are legal exceptions to do so.
Skype and Zoom services have updated their privacy measures to ensure they are fully compliant with GDPR regulations 2018.
Legal exceptions to obtaining your consent
There are only three lawful exceptions where I do not need your consent to share information to a third party:
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- Court Order – If I am required to disclose data about you, under a Court Order;
- Child Protection – If I am concerned about the welfare of a child, i.e., where there are child protection issues relating to potential physical, mental, sexual abuse or serious neglect;
- Risk to self or others – Where there is an imminent risk of serious harm to yourself or harm or exploitation of others.
If you are seeking help and you are perpetrating a serious crime against someone, or you are actively suicidal, I am unable to protect your right to privacy, as I must take appropriate action to protect the rights of children and vulnerable adults if I believe they are at risk.
In those instances, I am obliged to refer to my supervisor and contact relevant authorities and statutory social services if necessary. I will always follow local and national safeguarding policies and the UKCP Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics.
6. Accuracy and retention of personal information
If any of your information changes please let me know so that I can update your records.
According to the GDPR, your personal information should be stored for no longer than is necessary. All personal information will be deleted or securely destroyed at the appropriate time and I will not keep your personal information for longer than is required or permitted by law.
I’m legally required to hold certain information about you for a set period of time. I will store your information for a minimum of 7 years following the termination of your treatment. However, I may need to store your information for longer than this, for instance in order to defend myself in a claim situation, or to comply with my insurance terms and conditions.
7. Your individual rights
Your right of access
You are entitled to see what personal information I hold about you at any time. You have the right to make a written request for a copy of your personal information, free of charge. If you wish to access your personal information, please contact me at domch@positivemindclinic.com
As the client, you have the right to receive your personal information that you previously provided, and also have the right to transfer that information to another party.
I’m not required to process any request for access that is frivolous or vexatious, jeopardize or otherwise affects the privacy of others, is impractical, or for which access is not otherwise required by law. I will let you know in writing if any of these circumstances apply to your request.
Your right to rectification
If you believe that any information I am holding on you is incorrect, incomplete or needs updating, please email me with details and I will promptly make the right changes. I will always show you any report or letter I write to a third party before I send it, and invite you to rectify it as you see fit.
Your right to erasure
You have the right to ask me to erase any information that I hold about you. This includes your personal information that is no longer relevant to the purposes of your therapy or if you wish to withdraw consent. In all cases and when considering such requests, these rights are obligatory unless it is information that I have a legal obligation to retain.
Your right to lodge a formal complaint
Whilst I hope that the policy outlined above will be sufficient to reassure you of the security of your personal information, should you wish to object or complain about the way that your personal information is being handled, then do please communicate this to me at the earliest possible opportunity. I will do my best to address your concerns and take steps to try and resolve whatever issues you may raise. If you believe that your rights under the GDPR regulation have been infringed, or that the processing of personal data relating to you does not comply with lawful regulation, visit the Information Commissioners Office to find out how such matters can be dealt with on your behalf. Their helpline is 0303 123 1113.
8. How I use Cookies
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. We only use cookies for the following purposes::
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in the systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Find Out More
To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
You can change the settings on your browser to prevent cookies being stored on your computer or mobile device without your explicit consent.
The following links detail how to manage cookies on popular web browsers:
For information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer’s website, where the ‘help’ section will normally provide details on how to manage the cookie settings.
9. Social Media Policy
I am not able to accept friend requests on any social media platforms from clients or past clients and will never friend request you.
My clinic has an open public profile on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. I use these platforms in a professional manner to share information about the practice, news and helpful tips on mental health. If you follow me on these public accounts I am unable to follow you back. See reasons below.
I am not able to engage in social media communication (direct messages/comments etc) with clients or former clients. If I receive a message from you on a social media account I will delete it. This is not me being rude. This is for a number of reasons including:
- Maintaining our therapeutic boundaries to ensure I can continue to provide the best therapy environment for you.
- To protect your confidentiality – this is of the upmost importance to me.
- To respect each other’s privacy.
As such, I won’t be able to provide any advice or help in the form of social media messaging. If you need to contact me please do so on hello@positivemindclinic.com
I will never ask you for a testimonial for my social media or website as these are unethical and against the code of ethics as outlined by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy.
You can read the code of ethics here: