PRIVACY POLICY

Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:

  • Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for

  • Whether you have to provide it to me

  • How long I store it for

  • Whether there are other recipients of your personal information

  • Whether I intend to transfer it to another country,

  • Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

  • Your data protection rights.

    I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via EMAIL at rebecca.montgomery@fitforlifeni.co.uk

    ‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/ organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controllers are Fit for Life NI and RMC.

    My postal address is:

    Fit for Life NI, Bannatyne Health Club & Spa, Mertoun Hall, 106 Belfast Rd, Holywood BT18 9QY

    My phone number is: 02890 397768

  • My email address is: rebecca.montgomery@fitforlifeni.co.uk

My lawful basis for holding and using your personal information

The GDPR 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. I have explained these below:

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.

The 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 that it is for provision of health treatment (in this case counselling) and necessary for
a contract with a health professional (in this case, a contract between me and you).

How I use your information

Initial contact.

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include contact details and a brief reason for referral. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf.

While you are accessing counselling.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if I feel you are at risk of harming yourself or others, disclose an illegal act or there is a child safeguarding issue. I will always speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely the Fit for Life NI Database and are not shared.

I will keep written notes of each session, these are kept in your file in a locked cabinet.

After counselling has ended.

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 6 years from the end of our contact with each other and
are then securely destroyed.

Third party recipients - Fit for Life NI

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.

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 its, 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 rebecca.montgomery@fitforlifeni.co.uk

    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.

    How it might look

    Data security

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