Privacy Policy
Who we are
Our website address is: https://www.counsellingtogo.com
Introduction
The General Data Protection Regulations mean that we are required to inform you of any personal data we collect and how we hold and use this personal data. We take this responsibility and your confidentiality seriously and we hope this Privacy Notice answers any queries you may have about our data collection processes. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
We are committed to keeping your data safe at all times. We respect your right to privacy and your right to make informed choices about how we collect, hold or use your personal data.
As part of the services we provide, we may collect and process both personal data and also what is referred to as special category personal data. Special category personal data contains information relating to your health, such as maybe contained in counselling notes.
Our lawful basis for collecting this data is as follows:
- The data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specified purposes.
- Processing is necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine.
Consent for collecting and processing your personal data is sought from you during the first counselling session and you have the right to request that data about you is not held or processed.
We use the data we collect for the purpose of contacting you and providing the most effective therapeutic service we can.
We understand that confidentiality is important when accessing counselling services so that people feel safe enough to talk. Therefore information is only shared with a 3rd party when required by law or within the ethical framework of The Association of Professional Counsellors & Psychotherapists.
We will explain these circumstances fully to you before you commence counselling.
How Long Your Data is Kept
The different forms of personal data we collect are retained for different periods of time. Some information, such as counselling notes are kept securely locked for 7 years subsequent to counselling ending in line with APCP guidelines. Other information is only kept for as long as you avail of our services before being deleted/destroyed.
You have rights in relation to your personal data:
- You have a right to know what we collect and what we do with it
- You can ask to see your personal data
- You can check your personal data for accuracy and if it’s not, we must correct it
- You can withdraw your consent to collection of personal data at any time
- You can ask us to delete your personal data
Accessing Your Counselling Notes
You have the right of access your personal information.
If you wish to receive a copy of your records having viewed them, you can make a written request and they will be provided to you within thirty days or sooner free of charge.
Details of Third Parties With Whom Your Personal Data May be Shared
The information you provide to us is confidential, however there are circumstances in which it may be necessary to share aspects of your data with third parties for the purposes outlined below.
In the context of referral to other professionals, it may be necessary to furnish them with relevant parts of information in order for them to provide you with the treatment and services you need. This information will only be given with your explicit consent, except when there is serious concern for your safety.
Disclosures Required or Permitted Under Law
The information that you provide is confidential. In keeping with codes of ethics for psychologists and psychotherapists, the information shared within the context of a counselling relationship is treated in a strictly confidential manner and will not be divulged to others without your consent, except in the following exceptional circumstances:
- If there is a serious concern that there may be a threat to your safety or life or that of another.
- In the context of criminal behaviour and disclosures required by legal process
- Counsellors are legally obliged under the Children First Act 2015 to report child protection concerns and retrospective disclosures of abuse to Tusla Child & Family Agency, or An Garda Síochána. If you have concerns in relation to mandatory reporting your counsellor will provide you with information and support in relation to them.
If it becomes necessary to breach confidentiality, every effort will be made to discuss this with you before that step is taken.
Supervision, Professional Development and Quality Assurance
It is required by all psychotherapists and Counsellors to attend professional supervision and engage in reflective practice at which they discuss client presentations as part of their continuing professional development. In these situations, any identifying information pertaining to the client concerned is not revealed.
Our Data Protection Officer is Karen Mulligan. If you have any questions about our data privacy policies and procedures please do not hesitate to contact us on 087 6270737 or through the contact page on this website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles or informationon this site 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.
Google Analytics
We use this to understand how the site is being used in order to improve the user experience. User data is all anonymous. You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy as regards its analytics service here.
Rights over your data on this site
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Payment
Payment information is never taken by us or transferred to us either through our website or otherwise. Our employees and contractors never have access to it.
At the point of payment, you are transferred to a secure page on the website of PayPal / Stripe or some other reputable payment service provider. That page may be branded to look like a page on our website, but it is not controlled by us.
Your contact information
We keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communications with you to provide a high quality service.
Review of this privacy policy
We may update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted here on our website on the day you use our website. If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us.
Additional information
How we protect your data
Counselling To Go is committed to making sure your information is secure. We have in place appropriate policies and procedures to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, there are suitable and appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Your data is not shared with anyone outside of Counselling To Go or Sligo Counselling Service and is not shared without your prior consent, unless in the case of an emergency when, for your safety or the safety of other, other staff may be consulted.
What data breach procedures we have in place
In the event of a data breach, Counselling To Go and Sligo Counselling Service are required to follow the procedure of reporting to the Data Protection Manager. In the event of a major data breach, the operations manager is required to report it to the data regulator as required by Irish and European law.
What third parties we receive data from
Referral agents may send us data providing the prior consent of the referee is ascertained.
What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
We do not use personal information for the purposes of automated decision making or profiling.