Privacy Policy - Verdure Psychology

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Verdure Psychology Ltd. (“we”, “our” or “us”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information about our clients (“you”, “your”) when using our services and accessing our website https://verdurepsychology.co.uk (“Website”). As a UK-based provider of therapy services, we’re committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and your information is used in accordance with this Policy. By using our Website and services, you consent to the data practices described in this policy.

What Information We Collect

We collect personal data that you provide voluntarily when you use our services. This may include, but is not limited to, your name, contact details, medical history, therapy session details, relationships & children, occupation, health insurance details, and other health-related information necessary for the delivery of our services. We also collect information through cookies to track how people use our website to help improve the way we provide content to users (see below for more details).

We also receive personal information when contacted by a third party (such as a private practitioner submitting a referral on your behalf), when you contact us via a directory site (such as Psychology Today), or when you contact us via email, SMS or Whatsapp.

Why We Collect Your Information

We collect and use your personal information for the following purposes:

To conduct initial consultations, assessments and subsequent therapy sessions.
To maintain, improve, and administer our services.
To communicate with you about our services, including sending appointment reminders.
To comply with legal and professional obligations, including maintaining clinical records.
To see and analyse documents containing this information in order to carry out an assessment or to deliver psychological intervention.

How We Store Your Information

Your data is securely stored through Cliniko, a clinical practice management software that utilises advanced security measures, including data being sent via HTTPS (end-to-end encryption). Cliniko uses a 2048-bit SSL certification for encryption in transit. All data is also encrypted at rest and backed up daily, using the industry-standard AES-256 encryption algorithm. For clients paying via an insurance policy, essential data (name, address, D.O.B, policy details) will also be stored securely on a platform called Healthcode (an industry-leading system used to by private practitioners to invoice insurance companies). Healthcode offers end-to-end encryption and complies with all of the vigorous requirements of ISO/IEC 27001:2013. Access is controlled with an industry-standard authentication-authorisation solution.

All personal information is stored in compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) rules.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information as long as is necessary to provide our services and to comply with our legal and professional obligations. Our retention policy is guided by the British Psychological Society’s guidelines. Personal data is retained for seven years since the last contact (upon which it will be expunged from our systems). For clients under the age of 18, personal data is retained until their 26th birthday or seven years after our last contact, whichever is the latter. If you cease booking follow-up appointments at the regular frequency (and you have not discussed this with us), we will attempt to contact you via email and telephone. If you are under 18, we may also call your parents/carers (unless there is reason to suspect this could be unhelpful). If 6 months passes since the last contact, we will assume you do not wish to be contacted further and we will archive your clinical data. In the event we obtained written consent for GP communication during the assessment/therapy stage, we will inform the GP that treatment has concluded (if this is deemed to be useful).

Sharing Your Information

We maintain strict confidentiality of your personal information and will not share it with third parties, except in situations where it is necessary for the provision of our services, for legal requirements, to protect our rights, or to ensure your safety or the safety of others. Your information may be shared with outside organisations if they are directly involved in your care/case, for instance, your insurer if they are funding your treatment, your GP, or others involved in your care. If your health is in jeopardy, we may share your contact information with an emergency healthcare service or mental health crisis team.

All our treatments rely heavily on consent and we would never provide intervention to someone who did not want it. We would not work with someone who was being pressured or coerced to seek therapy (or those who, for whatever reason, are unable to provide informed consent for the therapy).

Psychologists are required to have regular supervision to discuss their work with another psychologist. This is to ensure that best practice is followed, and to support the psychologist’s continued professional development. Conversations about your treatment in supervision are confidential and held anonymously.

Sometimes ethical dilemmas present themselves which means the therapist has to think with you about sharing information with others. For example, you may not consent to information being shared but describe significant risk issues (such as drug/alcohol misuse, abuse, suicidal ideation or potential life-threatening conditions such as eating disorders). At Verdure Psychology, we believe there’s a difference between privacy and secrecy. We always respect individuals’ right to privacy and we want the confidential therapeutic space to feel safe so you can speak openly knowing you won’t be judged or criticised. However, it would not be ethical for us to withhold information about a significant risk issue. If this situation were to arise, it would always be our first choice to have an open discussion with you and to reach an appropriate decision collaboratively (such as passing the information on to a relevant party yourself, or taking independent action to reduce the risk). We pride ourselves on transparency and so, before signing up with Verdure Psychology, we want you to know that there are rare occasions when therapists need to share information without consent (such as submitting a safeguarding referral to the local authority if we considered a young person to be at risk of harm, or informing a parent if a child disclosed suicidal ideation). Confidentiality is of vital importance to us, but the safety of the people we work with is always our first priority.

Young People (13+). Based on extensive experience of child and adolescent mental health, Verdure Psychology recognises the importance of involving parents/carers in the process of assessment and therapy. Even when there’s tension in relationships, significant others can often provide helpful insights and support (and, where helpful, we can consider providing coaching for parents in order to facilitate this).

Including parents at certain points during the therapy process often enables them to understand their child’s difficulties in more depth, enhances communication, and facilitates parents to find new ways to support them (enhancing the effectiveness of the therapy). However, like adults, young people (aged 16 or 17) are presumed to have sufficient capacity to make their own decisions about therapy, unless there’s significant evidence to suggest otherwise. This means, under UK law, the extent to which significant others are invited to participate in the therapeutic process is typically entirely up to the young person to decide. For parents submitting a referral on behalf of a younger child, we will need parental consent before we can proceed. Even in cases where parents are consenting on their child’s behalf, it is essential the child is willing to attend therapy and that they can understand key aspects of their care such as confidentiality and how their data will be used (which we discuss with them when we first meet).

Adults. We have experience working with adults across the life span. Therapy is usually conducted on a 1:1 basis but, at the person’s request, we can consider involving significant others where it is felt to be helpful.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to make a request.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on our website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Collection of Information via Web Access

We gather information about you when you register with us or place an order for our services. We also collect data when you voluntarily fill out contact and referral forms. We always strive to limit the amount of personal information we require to provide a specific service or feature.

Our website utilises Cookies: small text files that your web browser places on your computer’s hard drive when you visit any website. These files enable the storage of information from one web page for use on another, which allows a website to offer you a personalised experience and provides the website owner with statistics about your usage of the website for improvement purposes. Some cookies remain for a set period, such as a day or until you close your browser, while others persist indefinitely. Your web browser should give you the option to delete any cookies you choose and should allow you to prevent or limit their use. Cookies are placed by software operating on our servers and by software operated by third parties whose services we use.

Requests from your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are logged. Data such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider, and your IP address may be logged. Information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution, may also be logged.

We use cookies and information provided by your web browser to monitor the usage of our website, which helps us improve the way we deliver content to users. We have a specific cookie policy which can be viewed here.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy at any time without notice to you, so please check it regularly (https://verdurepsychology.co.uk/privacy-policy). We will endeavour to get in touch directly to update you on any changes that we make.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at [email protected]

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact us at [email protected]

This Privacy Policy was last updated on the 9th of July 2024. This Privacy Policy aims to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.