I understand how important your privacy is.

I take care to maintain your confidentiality in accordance with current data protection laws (GDPR, 2018) and the ethical guidelines of the Psychological Society of Ireland. These guidelines have been set up to protect your confidential material and ensure that your psychologist always conducts themselves with professionalism and integrity.

 

In order to provide you with the best service possible, I will hold your personal contact details and records of your therapy sessions. Please find below important information about how this information will be held and used.

 

I use the secure, encrypted and password protected practice management platform, Karaconnect to collect and store your personal data. At the point of booking your initial consultation with me, you will be asked for your personal contact information, for example your name, address, email address and telephone number and you may also choose to share details of the issues you are looking for help with. Your contact information is stored securely in Karaconnect and can only be accessed by me.

 

Website Contact Form – If you use the contact form on my website, the details you provide (your name, email address and the body of your message) will be transmitted via a secure connection and delivered to my encrypted email account. These details will be used solely for the purpose of responding to your enquiry and will not be added to any marketing list or shared with third parties. Once your enquiry is resolved, any personal information submitted through the contact form will be deleted within six months unless you become a client, in which case the information will be incorporated into your client record as described in this policy.

 

In order to be able to fulfil my duty of care to you, in your initial consultation or first treatment session, I will ask you for contact information for your GP and elected Emergency Contact person. These details will be stored securely in Karaconnect and will only be accessible to me.

 

This personal information will be held for the duration of your therapy after which it will be deleted from my Karaconnect database and saved in secure alternate. I will need to keep a record of your name and client reference number for seven years after the end of your therapy, so that I can respond effectively to any potential requests regarding your clinical notes and treatment.

 

I will never pass on your contact details to any third party organisations for the purposes of sales, marketing or research and will never use your personal data for any purposes other than the administration of the psychology service I am providing to you i.e. to arrange, cancel and rearrange appointments and collect payment for sessions.

 

Online Bookings -- When you make an online booking or payment, Karaconnect will send a booking notification to your therapist via email and the Karaconnect messaging system.

 

Your payment details -- All payments made through my website or Karaconnect are made through the secure Stripe Connect server. My website therefore does not hold your payment information. Where you have made payment for your session over the phone, I will never keep a record of your card details. Your information is inputted directly into the card payment portal and no written record will be taken.

 

If your sessions are paid for or arranged via a third party, (e.g. your employer, a friend, or a family member), other than payment requests, invoices or receipts your psychology information will not be shared. Details about what is discussed in your sessions will remain confidential between us. Any other information can only be shared if you provide your written consent.

 

Your Psychology Sessions -- Everything that you discuss with me is confidential. Confidentiality will only be broken if there is concern about your safety or the safety of someone else or I am required to do so by a Court of Law. I will always endeavour to speak to you about this first.

 

Communications -- My email account uses the secure GSuite server and is double password protected. If you send me an email, only I will have access to it. All phones, tablets and laptops used to respond to your emails are encrypted, fully protected with anti-virus software and password protected.

 

I will only use your email address and telephone number to contact you about your appointments. I may also contact you directly via email in order to share information with you that is pertinent to your therapeutic process. Your phone number may also be used to issue appointment reminders via text message. You can opt in or out of text updates using your free Karaconnect account.

Your rights -- Any personal data retained by me is kept in accordance with the GDPR, 2018. Under these guidelines you have the following rights:

1. The right to request access to your data

2. The right of rectification

3. The right to be forgotten

 

Consent -- When you book your first session with me, you will be asked to provide a digital signature and tick a checkbox to confirm that you consent to the storage and processing of your personal data for the purposes of providing therapeutic services. You are entitled to withdraw this consent at any time and can do so by emailing me.

 

Website Contact Form Consent – By submitting the contact form on my website you acknowledge that the details you provide will be processed for the sole purpose of responding to your enquiry, in line with this privacy notice and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018.

 

Data Breaches -- In the event of any breach of my data protection policies, I will notify you and the Data Protection Commission (Ireland’s supervisory authority) within 72 hours and will seek to rectify this immediately.

 

Raising concerns -- Should you have any concerns about my data protection practices, you can raise these directly with me. You can also notify the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in Ireland.