Any personal data provided by you to the Edinburgh Counselling Studio through any means (verbal, written, in electronic form, or by your use of our website) will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation for the purposes for which you have given consent, to provide the services you have requested from us, and to meet the legitimate interests of the Edinburgh Counselling Studio.

Edinburgh Counselling Studio, the ‘data controller’, referred to below as “us” or “we”) is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the following in order to learn more about our privacy policy and our information collection and use practices.

This policy only applies to data collected by Edinburgh Counselling Studio, via our own forms and website. Third party agents, and websites which are linked to ours, are not covered by this policy. If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions on our use of the information, please contact us info@edinburgh-counselling-studio.co.uk

 When you enquire about or request counselling with Edinburgh Counselling Studio, or otherwise provide your personal details to us, you will be asked to consent to our processing of your data under the terms of this policy.

What information do we collect?

• Counselling Requests– Registering with us to request access to our counselling services can be done online, on paper or in person. Our request process involves providing us with your name, address, telephone numbers and email address. We may also request information on your availability, and other details which we deem relevant to processing your request and allow us to refer you to a counsellor who has availability at a suitable time.
• Other Forms – The information you give us on our forms (including all enquiry and application forms) may include your name, postal address, email address, phone number and other messages to us.
• Room Rental -If you are a counsellor looking to rent a room at The Edinburgh Counselling Studio we will ask you for contact details and information about your qualifications, current membership of governing bodies and indemnity insurance.

The Edinburgh Counselling Studio acts as a room rental and client referral service for independent self-employed counsellors. When you come for counselling at The Edinburgh Counselling Studio, your contract will be directly with your counsellor and not with The Edinburgh Counselling Studio. Your counsellor will have their own data protection and privacy policy and will provide you with this when you begin working with them. Any session notes or other information about their work with you is the responsibility of the counsellor with whom you work, and will be handled, processed and deleted or destroyed in line with their data protection and privacy policy.

What do we use your information for?

We use information held about you in the following ways:

• To provide clients with the professional counselling service requested from us.
• To enable us to offer appropriate opportunities and support to our counsellors.
• To offer suitable counselling appointments, and to allocate clients and counsellors for counselling.
• To notify you about changes to your appointments and other changes to our services.
• To seek feedback from you on your experience of counselling with us.
• To improve our service to ensure that it is provided in the most effective manner for you and for us.
• To administer our service, including the arrangement of appointments and for financial control, data analysis, research, statistical and survey purposes.
• To keep in touch with those who consent to this, for the purposes of organisational, service and professional development.
• To fulfil our administrative, legal and contractual obligations

We will not share any information about you with other organisations or people, except in providing services you request. We will share your information to fulfil your request for counselling by referring you to a self-employed counsellor working with us.

How do we keep your information safe?

All information you provide to us is stored as securely as possible.  All paper forms and correspondence are kept in locked filing cabinets on our premises.  All electronic records are stored securely and are password protected. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your information using industry-standard protocols and encryption, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us via email, including forms completed on our website which are transmitted by email; any transmission is at your own risk.

Your identifiable personal information is kept separately from any session notes and other descriptive material. Personal contact details are destroyed/deleted after 5 years of no contact or updates.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us to provide a copy of the information held by us in our records. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. If you would like to do this, please contact us by emailing info@edinburgh-counselling-studio.co.uk  You may also withdraw your consent for us to hold and process your data at any time.  However, if you do this while actively receiving counselling at Edinburgh Counselling Studio your counselling would have to end.  You can withdraw your consent by contacting us: info@edinburgh-counselling-studio.co.uk