Sessions:

Therapy sessions can be online or in person in my therapy room in South Bristol, and are generally an hour long.

Fees:

Our initial session would normally be online, it is 30 minutes and completely free.

If we decide to work together after our first consultation, sessions are usually 60 minutes at £65 once a week, but I aim to be as flexible as possible to suit your needs. Fees are payable in advance You will receive a reminder text/email on the day of the appointment, or the day before if the appointment is an early morning session.

The length of time we work together will depend on many factors. I offer short, medium and long term therapy, which we decide together.

Cancellation:

Generally, I would try to let you know at least 24 hours in advance if I had to cancel an appointment. I ask that you also give me 24 hours notice wherever possible, if you need to cancel.

If you cancel or don’t attend without 24 hours notice, the session may be charged at the usual rate. Reasonable adjustment will be applied to this, depending on the circumstances.

Contact information:

Tracy Walker

Tel: 07511088943

Email: tracywalker@inreachpsychotherapy.uk

I, Tracy Walker, am the Data Controller and Processor of InReach Therapy Bristol.

Data

I hold client data that is of legitimate Interest, as you would reasonably expect to be necessary for me to fulfil the contract we agree for me to offer and provide therapy.

Enquiries sent will mean I hold data including any information you have sent me by: email/text/message/online form.

From session 1, the data I hold includes:

·       Name and contact details

·       Notes pertaining to our sessions together

·       Records of treatment approaches used

·       Communication such as emails, texts and/or messages

·       Any appropriate third-party communication, e.g. GP, insurance company, EAP, occupational health provider.

Special category of data as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), may sometimes also be kept when: “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 without consent, except possibly your GP, or when legally or ethically required to do so as covered by the Requirements for disclosure, which are detailed and discussed at our first appointment.

Data is primarily used to enable me to provide therapy. Anonymised data may be used for research/ statistical purposes.

Details of where data is held:

·       Any emails sent between us are held on a password protected hard drive and in Dropbox which is secure cloud-based storage which is itself GDPR compliant. Any communication that may be held on my mobile phone are fingerprint/pin code protected.

·       Any texts/WhatsApp messages sent between us are held on my mobile phone which is fingerprint/pin code protected.

·       Your notes are stored on a database on a secure encrypted hard drive.   These are also anonymised using a coding system which enables me to know who the notes refer to, as an additional layer of protection

·       Your data will necessarily be held by third party payment systems such as PayPal and online banking.  I will download from these systems for accounting purposes, they will be password protected and anonymised for identifying personal details.

Insurance Requirements

In line with my insurance requirements, your data will be kept for 7 years after which time they will be permanently deleted/shredded. 

InReach 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 InReach 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.

Your rights with regards to the data held:

·       The right of access. You may request to see your data at any time.  I will provide data as quickly as possible and usually within 30 days unless illness or holidays should prevent me from doing so. 

·       The right to rectification. If any data is incorrect, 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, 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: purely statistical data cannot be redacted retrospectively but this does not include case notes or personal information

·       The right to restrict processing. Normally a temporary measure before correction of any errors or before erasure

·       The right to data portability. You may for example, want your notes sent to another therapist, in most cases of transfer, I would send the information directly to you

·       The right to object to:

o   Processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling). InReach does not engage in these things

o   Direct marketing.

o   Processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics. Forthis, you must provide grounds for your objection.

o   Automated decision making and profiling. Inreach does not engage in automated decision making or profiling

Cookies

In common with most websites, the Inreach website uses cookies: a minimal amount of data sent from the website to your computer/mobile phone which is then stored on your device’s hard drive.

Cookies record information about your online preferences. They help me understand how visitors find and engage with my site so that I can improve the website’s visibility and accessibility. I do not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.

Each website you visit can send its own cookie to your browser, if your browser’s preferences allow it. To protect your privacy, your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other websites.

How to control and delete cookies

You may restrict or block the cookies which are set by our website, or any other website, through your browser settings. You can also ask your browser to alert you when a cookie is issued.

More information about cookies and how to manage them is available at www.aboutcookies.org

I use Google Analytics to understand how visitors engage with my website. It collects information anonymously and reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. For more information visit Google Analytics privacy and security information.

InReach may utilise social media platforms such as, but not limited to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to communicate with and engage external-facing audiences. 

These communications will consist of information and marketing materials about InReach services and events as well as selected third-party posts on related themes.  This constitutes a promotional avenue of reaching interested people across a range of platforms,

InReach will not communicate with clients or others on a one-to-one basis via messaging on this medium or routinely respond to individual’s interaction on posts, podcasts or webinars.  Interaction with our social media presence is at the discretion of individuals and the use of cookies on social media sites is outside of my control.

InReach services can only be accessed through the means stated on the InReach website and not through social media. 

No personal information about clients or their bespoke clinical work will ever be shared via social media in accordance with our confidentiality agreement. 

InReach’s social media pages may be followed, but will not have a “friending” option in the interest of keeping appropriate professional boundaries and honouring the importance of confidentiality,

Any personal social media presence belonging to Tracy Walker, the owner of InReach, is separate from InReach business social media.  Tracy Walker will not accept/respond to messaging or friend requests from clients or anyone unknown or outside of my personal contacts. 

InReach would like to remind clients that they are responsible for data on their own devices and may wish to review their privacy/security settings, such as passwords and any location-based services you have switched on which enable people to locate where you are.

InReach does not include client reviews/testimonials on their website, marketing materials or on social media for reasons of confidentiality, ethical considerations (being unverifiable) and it being against advertising standards.  I have no control over what people may post on business review sites and cannot vouch for/am not responsible for the veracity or accuracy of such posts.

Confidentiality is of central importance to InReach Therapy.

The purpose of our confidentiality agreement is to keep everyone as safe as possible and to work in a transparent open way from the start.

What you say to me in sessions is treated as confidential and will not be shared with anyone not named by you, without your explicit agreement with some important exceptions, in line with common practice, legal obligations and duty of care. 

I do not operate my practice in isolation, and that I am bound by the rules of my registering bodies NCHP/NSTT/Trainee UCKP as well as the the laws of the land). 

I am supported by a supervisor as a safety-net for the client, ensuring I am offering the best practice possible. 

In the event of my not being available for a lengthy period, (e.g sudden long-term incapacity, etc.), my supervisor will then have access to client contact details and will be the person to contact you to ensure continuity of care. 

There are some circumstances where I either may need to consider, or be legally obliged to break confidentiality.

These exceptions are to do with significant risk of harm to yourself or somebody else. In this eventuality I would always discuss the issue with you before taking any action; unless to do so would escalate the risk/harm.

I will discuss confidentiality at the start of treatment to check you are in agreement, but in brief:

Cases where I would be required to act would include:

·       If you make me aware of historic or current practices of FGM on minors under the FGM Act 2003

·       Issues arising under the Terrorism Act 2000

·       Significant issues meeting local thresholds of harm arising in relation to at risk adults under the Care Act 2014 or children under the Care Act 2014 and The Children’s Act 2004

·       If I am required to give evidence under a court order

·       Statutory request for access to personal data under The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018

·       Police request for information about the driver of a vehicle at the time of an offence (not parking offences or historic driving offences)

·       Issues arising under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994, Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and Money Laundering Regulations 2007 – in these cases I may need to seek legal advice to clarify my statutory obligations

Cases where I may need to take advice around acting include:

·       Issues arising under a future or past serious criminal activity that has not been resolved in law e.g. murder, rape, serious fraud etc. 

·       Issues arising of significant harm to the client from others where a safeguarding duty exists e.g. if the client lacks capacity to safeguard themselves

·       Safeguarding concerns where appropriate authorities are already involved

You may elect for me to speak with named others such as your GP or other professionals you work with, as well as family members./partners (e.g. to leave messages with).  Those named would be added to our confidentiality agreement. 

Finally, I will revisit the issue of confidentiality in sessions as needed and as a way of reminding you around the limits to confidentiality and review the agreement at intervals to make sure it stays relevant to your needs and in line with any changes to the law or regulatory guidelines. 

In the case of an emergency please use 999 services

If you require urgent support but it is not an emergency situation you can contact local/national services, such as:

Samaritans freephone: 116 123

Text SHOUT to 85258

Urgent medical Advice: 111

Call 111 and select option 2 to access 24/7 helpline for urgent mental health support

Non-urgent mental health support:

Mind Info line: 0300 102 1234 (9am - 6pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays)