The Data Protection Act 2018 is the United Kingdom's implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which provides the legal framework for data protection in the United Kingdom (UK GDPR). The primary aim of the UK GDPR is to give more control to citizens and residents over their personal data.

 

UK GDPR applies to any organisation/company/individual that manipulates information about any persons. It requires minimum standards around secure storage of personal information, the right to access personal information held about you, the right to have your personal information deleted and how your data is transported, where applicable.

 

Maria Garcia Therapy is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under registration number ZB283902. We take the privacy of your information very seriously and this Privacy Notice is designed to inform you about our practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal data which may be obtained via our website or other means including online forms, email, or phone, as well as during the therapy services.

​

Personal information is any information that can be used to identify a living person. We currently collect and process the following information:

• Personal identifiers, demographic information and contact details (name, e-mail address, contact number), and any information you chose to share with us

• Personal information to aid the therapy services offered. This information is important in order to provide best possible care, including details of your next of kin and GP in case of emergencies.

• Website user stats

 

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

• You are interested in contacting us for our services and have provided us with your personal details, either via online forms or email

• You have searched online and landed on our website

• You have started therapy services and are providing relevant information during the process

 

Your personal information will be used for clinical purposes only, as part of the therapy services. The information will not be shared with third parties. Should a request for your information be made by a third party (GP, Local Authority, Court), you will be informed, and your consent sought. We may be required by Law to disclose information about risk to yourself or others if we believe that either yourself or others are not safe. We will do our best to discuss any need for disclosure with you, unless the disclosure places you or others at further risk.

As part of a therapist’s professional registration, all therapists are required to receive clinical supervision to ensure that they meet the practice standards required by their professional bodies. Supervision is provided by a qualified and registered supervisor who abides by the same professional guidelines. Information discussed by your therapist in supervision is anonymised and only information relevant to providing care to you will be shared.

 

Under the UK GDPR, the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

 

1. Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting contact@mariagarciatherapy.com.

2. We have a contractual obligation.

3. We have a legal obligation.

4. We have a vital interest.

5. We need it to perform a public task

6. We have a legitimate interest.

 

Your information is securely stored. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate technical and organisational measures are carried out in order to safeguard the information we collect from you and protect against unlawful access and accidental loss or damage, in line with UK GDPR.

 

We keep personal identifiers and contact details (name, e-mail address, contact number), and any information you chose to share with us. Professional bodies generally advise that clinical information is kept for 7 years after the end of an intervention, or 7 years after a child turns 18 in the case of children, from the last session. We will then securely dispose of or delete your information.

 

In order to provide our therapy services, we need to contact you in order to arrange and remind you of appointments, to send you material and resources relevant to the sessions and therapy, to notify changes in appointments and to send you invoices for the sessions.

There are several ways in which we can communicate with you regarding your care: telephone, text messages, e-mails and post. E-mail is our preferred communication medium. We use a secure encrypted platform that protects communication. For additional security, sensitive information such as reports will be sent as password-protected documents.

We are not responsible for data/information you hold at your end, if the means by which we sent the information was in keeping with data protection regulations.

 

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

• Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

• Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

• Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

• Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

• Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
   

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. Please contact us at contact@mariagarciatherapy.com if you wish to make a request.

 

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can contact us at contact@mariagarciatherapy.com.

​

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

​