Privacy Notice

General Data Protection Regulation states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. 

There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data: 

  • If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information. 

  • If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract. 

  • GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately. This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is consent initially. 

  • I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims). 

How might this look?

  • When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include but might not be limited to name, age, DOB, contact details, emergency contact details, personal details relevant to getting an outline of the presenting issue. 

  • Alternatively, you may be referred by a third party who sends me your details when making a referral, a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. 

  • If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within one month. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, please let me know. 

  • While you are accessing counselling. Everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if I consider there to be risk of harm to someone or I have a duty to report illegal activity.

  • I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding or legal issues that prevent this. 

During Counselling

  • I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. 

  • I only take electronic notes, which are kept on a password protected laptop and google drive. 

  • I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly (kept securely on my laptop -password protected - and are not shared with any third party).

  • I do not retain text messages or emails, unless they pertain to a safeguarding or legal issue. Relevant information will be added to my clinical notes. 



After counselling has ended. 

Intake date will be kept for 6 months after the final session and then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

Third party recipients of personal data 

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

Your rights 

I try to be as open as I can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. 

You have a right to ask me to delete your personal information, to limit how I use your personal information, or to stop processing your personal information. 

You also have a right to ask for a copy of any information that I hold about you and to object to the use of your personal data in some circumstances. 

You can read more about your rights on the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) website here. 

If I do hold information about you I will: 

  • give you a description of it and where it came from

  • tell you why I am holding it

  • tell you how long I will store your data and how I made this decision

  • tell you who it could be disclosed to

  • let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form. 

You can also ask me at any time to correct any mistakes there may be in the personal information I hold about you. To make a request for any personal information I may hold about you, please put the request in writing addressing it to: alexballardcounselling@gmail.com 

If you have any complaint about how I handle your personal data please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by writing or emailing to the contact details given above. I would welcome any suggestions for improving my data protection procedures. 

If you want to make a formal complaint about the way I have processed your personal information you can contact the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office), which is the statutory body that oversees data protection law in the UK. 

For more information go to ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint