Privacy Notice 

Kathryn Beastall of KSB Counselling provides face-to-face and online counselling for anyone over the age of 18. 

This Privacy Notice explains what to expect when KSB Counselling collects and uses your personal information. Please read through this document. Then, if you would like to learn more about my data protection and privacy policies, or just talk things through we can do that.

Address: Data Protection Officer, Keepers Cottage, Baughton Lane, Near Lower Strensham, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR8 9DT.

Kathryn Beastall is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (ICO registered number ZB498080).

How I treat the information I gather

At KSB Counselling, your privacy is really important to me, so you can be confident that your personal information and anything you tell me is kept safe and secure. For your peace of mind, I process personal information in accordance with the current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Act 2018 and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR). These laws strengthen your rights to privacy and give you more control over the personal information that organisations hold about you.

I may on occasion update this policy. Any changes I may make to my Privacy notice in the future will be posted on the Privacy Notice page on my website www.ksbcounselling.co.uk and you are deemed to have accepted the terms of the Policy on your first use of the website following the alterations. You can request a paper copy at any time.

How do I collect personal information?

There are a few different ways that I can collect your personal information, and I will always choose the route that you are happiest with.

I can collect information direct from you when you:

• Contact me with an enquiry about my counselling service.
• Receive counselling or support from me.
• Visit my website. Please see my Cookies section for more information.

Or I can collect your information from other sources:

• Your GP or another agency may send your details to me when making a referral.
• Another person (family, friend, employer etc.) may give me your details when making enquiries about counselling services on your behalf.

What type of personal information do I collect – and how do I store it?

It is useful for KSB Counselling to have all the personal information that will let me give you the most effective service. There are two types of personal information that I might gather from you:

General Personal information

• Personal identifiers (your title, name, and year of birth).
• Contact details including postal address, postcode, email address and telephone number (including your mobile number).
• Which GP/doctor’s surgery you go to.

Sensitive Personal Data

The Data Protection Act recognises some information as ‘sensitive personal data.’ This includes, but is not limited to, information which reveals any mental health issues, any relevant disabilities that may affect counselling, why you would like counselling, and other agencies that are supporting you, as well as information to help me assess how serious things are for you.

Your counselling sessions

Be assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. Confidentiality will only be broken if I am worried about your safety, or the safety of someone else, or I am instructed to do so by a Court of Law. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there is a safeguarding issue which prevents this.

• You don’t need to worry when you receive online support from me, because I will only use a platform of your choice, and usually use a plaform that offers end to end encryption. The online platform can’t be linked to your personal records or used to identify you. 
• I’ll keep hold of some of your personal details to help my counselling service run smoothly, including the details you gave me when you referred in. Don’t worry these details are always kept in a locked and secure location based in the UK.
• I will keep handwritten notes of each session. These are stored in a locked and secure location based in the UK.

Records are kept for three years. After that, they will be securely destroyed.

It is important that you trust my services, and that is why I take data security so seriously. To keep your personal information safe, I have put in place suitable physical, electronic, and practical procedures to safeguard and secure all data collected.

Why do I collect your personal information?

• First of all, because having access to your personal information means I am able to give you the best possible help. Everyone is different, and by knowing a little more about you, I can deliver personalised and professional counselling and support that is tailor-made for your needs.
• I also need to make sure you are able to demonstrate ‘competency’ to take part in counselling. This means that you understand what the service is that you are to receive and that I have explained to you what will happen, what you can expect and what you can do if you are not happy with any part of my service to you.
• Occasionally, I might ask you to share information with me which helps me to check how you are doing, and to give you the opportunity to feedback how the sessions are going for you. This helps me to make sure I am giving you the best type of support to meet your needs.
• When you visit my website, I use anonymised server-side analytics to gather information about which pages are visited most – this helps me improve my site and make it easier to navigate. 

• So that I can contact you with the most relevant information for you.

• I never share your information with other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes, and I do not pass on your personal information to any other website.

Disclosure (sharing) of your information

You can trust KSB Counselling to safeguard your details. I will only disclose your personal information if I believe you are in danger of hurting yourself or of being harmed (safeguarding). I will ALWAYS endeavour to discuss this with you before I talk to anyone, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Third-party sharing

• KSB Counselling may, from time-to-time, employ the services of other parties for dealing with matters that may include, but are not limited to, website management.
• The providers of such services do not have access to certain personal data provided by Users of my website. Any data used by such parties is used only to the extent required by them to perform the services that KSB Counselling requests. Examples of this are updating the Privacy Notice, changing website content etc. This does not include data collected for the purpose of counselling services.
• Any use for other purposes is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, any data that is processed by third parties must be processed within the terms of this Notice and in accordance with the General Data Protection Act 2018.

Your rights

KSB Counselling takes your rights seriously, and I want to make sure you always feel in control of your counselling sessions. Under the UK-GDPR and General Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

• ask me not to process your personal data.
• see information I hold about you.
• ask for inaccurate personal data to be corrected.

For a copy of the personal information, I hold about you write to the Data Protection Officer, Keepers Cottage, Baughton Lane, near Lower Strensham, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR8 9DT.

What do I mean when I say I “market” to you and how do I do it? 

This may include sending you information and updates about our work, news, and information you may be interested in.

Email Marketing

I am most likely to contact you by email as I am committed to keeping costs low. I will only contact you by email if I have your permission. You can withdraw your permission at any time.

Postal Marketing

On rare occasions, I may get in touch to update you about our current work, or invite you to event that I think you may be interested in. I will only contact you by post if you have given me permission to do so. You can withdraw your permission at any time.

Your Choices

KSB Counselling is committed to respecting your choice whether to receive marketing information. You can update your permissions, preferences or contact information at any time by:

• Calling me on 07939 026924 and letting me know
• Emailing kathryn@ksbcounselling.co.uk

Links to and from my website

This site contains links to and from other organisations’ websites. This privacy policy, the one you’re reading, only applies to KSB Counselling’s website.

If you go to another website from this one, read their own privacy policy to find out what it does with your information.

Changes to my privacy policy

As I continue improving my website, I may update this policy. Any changes I may make to my privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and you are deemed to have accepted the terms of the Policy on your first use of the website following the alterations.