- Who I am
I am Iona Lawson, a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist based in the UK. I am the data controller for the personal information you provide to me.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, you can contact me at:
Email: iona@ionalawsonhypnotherapy.co.uk
- What information I collect
I may collect the following personal information:
- Name and contact details (email, phone number, address)
- Relevant medical or wellbeing information
- Information shared during therapy sessions
- Session notes and records
- Website enquiry information
- Special category data
As a therapist, I process sensitive personal data (known as “special category data”), including information about your health and wellbeing. This may include information discussed during sessions and recorded in my notes.
- Why I collect your information
I collect and use your personal information in order to:
- Respond to enquiries
- Provide Solution Focused Hypnotherapy services
- Maintain client records
- Ensure safe and appropriate care
- Meet professional and legal obligations
- Lawful basis for processing
I process your personal data under the following lawful bases:
- Legitimate interests – to provide safe and effective therapy services, where it is necessary to process personal data in order to support your care, and where this is balanced with your rights and privacy
- Contract – where processing is necessary to provide agreed services
- Legal obligation – where I am required to comply with UK law
For special category (health-related) data, I process this under:
- Provision of health or social care
- How I use your information
Your information is used only for purposes directly related to your care, my professional responsibilities and the safe delivery of therapy services.
I only collect information that is necessary, relevant and proportionate to the services I provide.
Your information is stored securely and appropriate measures are taken to protect it from unauthorised access, loss or misuse.
I do not use your data for marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
- Confidentiality and sharing
Your information is kept confidential. Confidentiality is an essential part of the therapeutic relationship.
However, I may share information where necessary:
- If there is a risk of serious harm to you or others
- If required by law (e.g. court order)
- With professional supervisors (anonymised)
- With other professionals (with your consent, where appropriate)
- How long I keep your information
- Adult client records are kept for 8 years after your final session
- Children’s records are kept until age 25 (or 26 if therapy ends at 17)
- Records are securely deleted after this period
- Your rights
You have the right to:
- Access your personal data (Subject Access Request)
- Request correction of inaccurate data
- Request erasure where appropriate
- Object to processing in certain circumstances
Requests will be handled within one month.
- Subject Access Requests (SARs)
If you request access to your data, I will carry out reasonable and proportionate searches to locate relevant information.
- Data protection complaints
If you have a concern about how your personal data has been used, please see my:
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
https://ico.org.uk
- Website use
Cookies
Like any other website, our website uses ‘cookies’. These cookies are used to store information including visitors’ preferences, and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users’ experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information.
You can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser options. More information on how to do this can be found by visiting the following links :
- https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
- http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
- https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and
- https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).
Note that if you block cookies, some features of our website may not be available to you.
Links to other sites
Our website may contain links to other sites (Facebook, Twitter, PayPal etc). Our Privacy Policy does not apply to other websites. Thus, we are advising you to consult the respective Privacy Policies of these other sites for more detailed information. It may include their practices and instructions about how to opt-out of certain options.
Log Files
Our website follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. All hosting companies do this and a part of hosting services’ analytics. The information collected by log files include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movement on the website, and gathering demographic information.
Children’s Information
We do not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 18. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.
Consent
By using our website, you acknowledge this Privacy Notice. We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time, and we invite you to check this page periodically to ensure you are happy with any changes to it.