top of page

PRIVACY POLICY

In May 2018, the Data Protection Act was replaced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Emily Richardson (Refocus Hypnotherapy) is GDPR registered. The changes to the Data Protection Act are aimed at ensuring your personal, confidential and sometime sensitive data, is held privately and securely. This means that any data you give to Emily Richardson must be processed in a way you agree with. GDPR exists to protect your rights as a consumer. It applies to your identifiable data, e.g. your Name and address & any reason you might have for visiting Emily Richardson. It also covers any session records, text messages or emails between Emily Richardson & yourself.


Emily Richardson (Refocus Hypnotherapy) is a member of the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office). As such they are bound by their regulations regarding the length of time they must hold onto your information. The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH), of which Emily Richardson is a member, insists that Emily Richardson “You should keep written records stored securely for 8 years after the last interaction with an adult client and up to the age of 25 for a child under 16 when last seen or 26yrs for 17–18-year-old.”

Client records will be destroyed in the January after the dates given above. This is also in line with NHS regulations for holding data.

​

Under the GDPR rules, you are able to request the deletion of any of your records at any time. Simply write to Emily Richardson requesting that your records are destroyed and once they have confirmed your identity, they will do so. There is no charge for this service. Emily Richardson will then ensure that all your paper records are shredded with a cross shredding machine. Any electronic data held by Emily Richardson, such as emails or texts will be permanently deleted from the devices they are stored on. NB. Emily Richardson may need to save the written deletion request you sent them, if their insurance company insists on it, but would destroy any other data.

​

In line with GDPR, if you send Emily Richardson a request in writing, specifying the data you wish to see, they will supply you with a copy of your data within 30 days. Emily Richardson will need to confirm your identity before sending you the information. There will be no charge for this service. NB Emily Richardson’s insurance company’s legal team may wish to verify any information Emily Richardson sends out.

​

Emily Richardson (Refocus Hypnotherapy) is keen to offer the highest quality support to their clients and in order to do so they will collect the following information:

  • An idea of what you would like to achieve by coming for hypnotherapy

  • A small amount of medical information 

  • Some brief session notes

  • Your contact details

  • GP contact details

  • CORP research data

  • Some basic information about your important others


This information allows Emily Richardson to provide continuity within the sessions, in order to help you towards your goal. This information will allow Emily Richardson to refer to the content of earlier sessions and previous discussions. Emily Richardson will only use your contact details/address and GP’s details with your explicit consent. See client agreement and initial consultation. The CORP research programme collects unidentifiable information for the purposes of producing scientifically measured outcomes for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.

​

  • Paper session notes -Emily Richardson does not use paper notes and therefore will not store any paper from sessions

  • Text messages -Emily Richardson’s work phone is secured by face ID and/or passcode and therefore only accessible by Emily Richardson

  • Emails-Emily Richardson’s email account requires username and password, and when being accessed on mobile device, will require face ID; ensuring that Emily Richardson is the only person able to access these emails

​

Everything you discuss with Emily Richardson during your sessions remains strictly confidential. Occasionally it may be necessary for Emily Richardson to discuss elements of your sessions with their supervisor to ensure that they are helping you in the most effective way. However, no identifying features about you will be disclosed during these discussions. Emily Richardson’s supervisor is also registered with the ICO and abides by GDPR requirements.

​

Emily Richardson is obliged by GDPR to protect your confidentiality at all times. So, for this reason, although they may acknowledge you, it would be ideal if any further conversation could be avoided. However, if you wish to discuss your therapy with other people, that is your choice and you are welcome to do so.

​

Emily Richardson is only able to contact other health and social care professionals with your written consent.

Should they write to your GP, to notify them that you have entered a therapeutic relationship with them, or to notify them that your therapy has been successfully concluded, Emily Richardson would require your signature, in line with GDPR requirements. Emily Richardson does have a ‘duty of care’ towards their clients, so the only exceptions to this would be if they believed that you were about to harm yourself or others. Should this occur then Emily Richardson would be required to inform the relevant authorities. However, Emily Richardson would always aim to discuss this with you before taking any action. Legally, Emily Richardson would also have to provide the police with information as set out in a warrant or court order, should the situation arise.

 

Data Controller is Emily Richardson (Refocus Hypnotherapy). This policy was last updated 08/09/2023. It may be updated at any time, so please check back regularly to ensure that you're aware of the latest version. Please note that the cookie policy for www.refocushypno.co.uk is available to view online.

ICO Registration number: ZB5318

bottom of page