Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy - How we use your information
This privacy policy tells you what to expect when Andy Williams Psychotherapy collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:
- Visitors to the website and social media pages
- People who subscribe to the newsletter or join our mailing list
- People who use our services e.g. CPD courses
- Complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or freedom of information complaint or enquiry
Visitors to our website
When someone visits www.awpsychotherapy.co.uk we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
We use third party services, Therapy Webgenie and WordPress.com, to publish our website and blog. We use their standard services to collect anonymous information about users’ activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it.
E-newsletter
We use a third party provider, Mailchimp, to deliver our e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see Mailchimp Privacy Policy.
People who contact us via social media
We use a third party provider, Hootsuite to manage our social media interactions together with direct contact with facebook, twitter and linked-in.
If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored for three months. It will not be shared with any other organisations.
People who email us
We monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.
People who use our services
We have to hold the details of the people who have requested the service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. When people do subscribe to our mailing list, they can cancel their subscription at any time and are given an easy way of doing this.
People who access online therapy or online supervision
Zoom
AWPsychotherapy offers online couple and individual therapy via the ZOOM platform. This platform is not totally secure but offers a consistent, confidential and reliable video software platform. AWPsychotherapy aims to provide the highest practical levels of client confidentiality protection by using Zoom which states that it provides end to end encryption and is GDPR and HIPAA compliant. We regret we are unable to guarantee complete confidentiality under all circumstances. Monitoring or intrusion by state agencies or by computer service providers operating under state direction may in certain jurisdictions pose a threat to client confidentiality.
When joining by computer or phone there is some device information which is collected for technical delivery purposes only and this is retained for 7 days. Information provided by the telephone service provider when participants connect via phone is retained for 24 hours only for technical delivery purposes:
Participant name (as entered by the participant when joining zoom)/ phone number
Device type e.g. Mac/ Windows
Public IP address
Location (20 mile radius)
Network Type e.g. wifi or wired
Microphone type e.g. built in
Speaker type e.g. built in
Camera type
Data Centre
Connection Time
Join and leave time
People who use our services as therapy clients
We need to collect information from you to:
Identify you – so name, address, date of birth.
To get in contact with you about appointments, the therapist being ill etc – so email address, phone number
To keep you safe – so information about your GP, your medication, your emergency contact
To track your progress – so clinical notes – very light touch.
How long do we retain your records
Your record of therapy is retained for seven years from discharge – in a combination of securely-held paper format and GDPR compliant online format – through the company “Private Practice Software” by Rushcliffe.
At the end of this period, paper records are incinerated or shredded through a provider, and your electronic record is “forgotten” by us by pressing the forgotten button in the electronic system – all records are removed.
What information do we ask for, and why?
We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.
People who make a complaint to us
When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.
We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We may have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.
We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.
Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.
Data Complaints or queries
We try to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.
This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of TA Training Organisation’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.
Access to personal information
We try to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a request in writing to the address below. If we do hold information about you we will:
- Give you a description of it;
- Tell you why we are holding it;tell you who it could be disclosed to;
- Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
Disclosure of personal information
In many circumstances we will not disclose personal data without consent. However when we investigate a complaint, for example, we may need to share personal information with professional bodies.
Links to other websites
This privacy policy does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.
Changes to this privacy policy
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 14th April 2020.
How to contact us
If you want to request information about our privacy policy you can email us or write to:
Jane Williams – Centre Director
The Horsforth Centre for Psychotherapy
138 Low Lane
Horsforth
Leeds LS18 5PX