Cookies and Privacy policy:

Use of Cookies

This website was designed with the intention of providing information about hypnotherapy, along with my therapeutic approach and how it may help you. The site only uses cookies to track visits to the web site for search engine purposes, such as google analytics, and no personal details are stored. I respect your confidentiality, and should you choose to contact me via email, phone or text, none of this or any other information will be added to a mailing list or passed onto any third party.

You may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. To do this start by consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the 'About Cookies website' which offers guidance for all modern browsers

Privacy Notice

Chris Gelder Hypnotherapy is the business name of sole trader, Chris Gelder and I am the Data Controller and Processor of Chris Gelder Hypnotherapy.

The basis on which I keep client data is that of “Legitimate Interests”. This means that the data is necessary for me to fulfil the contract that we have together (ie to provide therapy) and that it is data that you would reasonably expect me to hold and use.

For those who enquire about therapy, the data I hold includes any information you have sent me by email/text/message.

For those who book and attend at least one session, the brief data I hold includes:

• Basic information such as name, email address, phone number
• Information that you give me as part of the work we do together
• Records of what interventions that I use (or potentially do not use) in our sessions
• Emails, texts and/or messages that are sent between us
• Information sent to or from any third party on your behalf, eg Colleges, GP, Employee receipts insurance company

Health data is regarded as a special category of data by the General Data Protection Regulation. The condition for processing this special data is “processing is necessary for medical diagnosis, the provision of health care or treatment pursuant to contract with a health professional”.

Data is not shared with anyone, except possibly your GP, and for any reasons covered by the Requirements for Disclosure which are detailed and discussed when we first meet.

The data is primarily used to enable me to provide therapy for you.

Details of where data is held:

• Any emails sent between us are held either on my computer’s hard drive or if archived, in Dropbox which is secure cloud based storage which is itself GDPR compliant.
• Any texts/Whatsapp messages/Messenger messages sent between us (See Social Media and Electronic Information section) are held on my iphone which is code protected.
• Any notes are handwritten and are kept in a locked filing cabinet. They never contain a full name, dates or any contact details. My notes are generally single words to help guide me in our therapy. A stranger seeing the notes would not be able to identify who they referred to.
• Credit card information is shredded as soon as processed.
• If you use Paypal or online banking then clearly these systems will hold your data. This information is stored in my password protected business bank account only, and is never downloaded.

Your data is kept for 7 years. The length of time is based on the stipulation of my insurer. After this time any paper records are shredded and computer records permanently deleted.

Chris Gelder Hypnotherapy (London) takes the security of data seriously and as such:

• All data is held securely (see details of where data is held above)
• Any data transmitted is sent encrypted where possible
• For accounting purposes Excel spreadsheets are used

However:

• I am not in control of data (including emails and texts) which you send me
• Apps such as Facebook routinely access any information held and this is beyond my control.

If there is any breach of data security will give full details to the Information Commissioners Office and any person affected within 72 hours of the breach and do all possible to minimise any potential impact.

You have rights with regards to the data held.

• The right of access: I will provide you with all data I hold on you as soon as I can following a request (and definitely within 30 days, unless this is impossible due to holidays or illness).
• The right to rectification: If any data I hold is incorrect, just let me know and I will correct it as soon as I can following a request (and definitely within 30 days, unless this is impossible due to holidays or illness).
• The right to erasure: If you wish me to erase your data just let me know and I will delete any computer records and shred any paper records as soon as I can following a request (and definitely within 30 days, unless this is impossible due to holidays or illness). NB: data may be retained for scientific research, historical research or statistical purposes where erasure is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of that processing but this would never include case notes or data such as address/email/phone

• The right to data portability: This might apply if you want your notes sent to another therapist for example, but it is likely that the easiest solution would come under the right to access, ie I would send the data to you.

Chris Gelder Hypnotherapy does not engage in direct marketing and any form of processing data for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics. automated decision making and profiling.

Policy Changes

We reserve the right to amend this privacy policy at any time with or without notice.

However, please be assured that if the privacy policy changes in the future, we will not use the personal information you have submitted to us under this privacy policy in a manner that is materially inconsistent with this privacy policy, without your prior consent.

We are committed to conducting our business in accordance with these principles in order to ensure that the confidentiality of personal information is protected and maintained.

If you have any questions regarding this policy, or your dealings with our website, please contact chris@chrisgelder.co.uk.