Data Privacy Statement
I collect basic personal data about you including your name, address, telephone number and email address in order to provide you with information regarding my services and to arrange appointments. I may also collect other relevant data about you including a history of significant life events and health concerns in order to undertake a fully informed clinical assessment of your suitability for using any of my services and to safeguard you and others. I am required under the terms of my therapist insurance policy to maintain client records for a minimum of 5 years including a brief description of the therapy. You have the right to request to see information I hold about you and even have it corrected or deleted with the exception of records retained for insurance purposes. All personal data I process is processed by myself in the UK however for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance this information is located on servers within the European Union. No third parties have access to your personal data unless the law allows them to do so or you explicitly ask me to share information with a third party. I have a Data Protection regime in place to ensure the effective and secure processing of your personal data. I am the Data Protection Officer and you can contact me if you wish to raise a complaint on how I have handled your personal data via this Complaints Form – Fill in form.
Complaints Process
In my clinical practice I work at relational depth and truly hope that you feel able to access every part of yourself in a safe, nurturing environment that allows you to express yourself fully. Therapeutic ruptures are a normal part of therapy and can present opportunities for psychological growth. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of therapy, I ask that you let me know as soon as possible so we can work towards a therapeutic repair. Complaints should ideally be made as soon after the time the problem happened to allow for a swift and amicable resolution but you may complain up to three years from the date you became aware of the problem. I hope that we can resolve any issues informally, however, for good practice I have a staged complaint process.
Stage 1 - Informal Grievance
I invite ongoing, respectful, non-defensive informal discussion between us about your therapy. I welcome the opportunity to listen and discuss anything that you are unhappy with. I encourage you to do this during your session to avoid any misunderstandings that can happen over email/text. I would prefer to hear about any grievance in real time.
Stage 2 - Formal Complaint
I hope that you will not have cause to make a formal complaint, but if you are unhappy with my response at stage 1, you may make a formal complaint stating what you are unhappy about, when this happened and what you would like me to do to resolve matters. I aim to acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours and reply by email within 30 days of receipt.
Stage 3 - Independent Review
If you remain unsatisfied with my response at stage 2, please let me know within 7 days of the date of my written response. I will then ask my clinical supervisor to independently review how I have handled your complaint and respond to you within 30 days of receipt. I will need your explicit consent (email will suffice) to share your personal information with my supervisor for the purpose of reviewing your complaint.
Stage 4 – Escalation Process
If you remain dissatisfied, you may contact NCPS https://ncps.com/complaints/complaints-concerns-procedure for counselling concerns, EMDR UK for EMDR therapy concerns info@emdrassociation.org.uk in line with their complaints policy or the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/ if you believe that your personal data has been mishandled. You should follow stages 1 to 3 first.