Last updated October 2021

This policy is for the benefit of my therapy clients. Its aim is to address the most likely eventualities which may arise in the digital world especially concerning privacy and data protection.

It represents my choices in regard to my online activities and I remain open to changing my positions on these.

I ask all clients to read this document to familiarise themselves with my policy.

Maintaining Boundaries 

I prefer to keep all clinical work ‘in the room’ that is within the online session as far as possible and not engage in any clinical discussion outside of this boundary.

Zoom, Facetime and Skype

Although improvements such as end to end encryption have been made to the security of video conferencing platforms, problems such as unintended interruptions can still occur.

Please ensure that you comply with the requirements set out in my document ‘Therapy Online’ which you can view here.

Email

I do not use an email encryption programme so the emails we send to each other may be vulnerable to viruses or human error.  Because of this it is best to consider carefully what you include in your emails to me and from which email address you choose to correspond with me.

In an effort to keep confidential information ‘in the room’ it is best avoided in emails.

If you communicate with me by email please be aware that all emails are retained in the logs of internet service providers.  They can be susceptible to viruses and unintended forwarding or replication.  

I try to respond to emails promptly however I cannot guarantee to respond within a given time frame.

Text Messages

You are welcome to contact me by text message.   However, please be aware that my text message number 07520 633 111 is a text to email service and all texts to this number are retained in the log of the service provider.

This service does not accept pictures or documents.

Because of brevity and lack of context, text message is not a good method for discussing important matters.

Social Media

Currently I do not use any social media platforms such as Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Data Protection and GDPR

After an introductory call, if we agree to continue, I will email you my Talking Therapy and GDPR Agreements setting out the details of how we will work together.