The content of your sessions will not be communicated with any third party except for the purposes of the supervision of our work. All counsellors working ethnically use supervision to ensure the best possible outcome for their clients. A supervisor is a more experienced counsellor, and their role is to enable us to explore and identify different ways of working with you and for our professional development. In this instance your identity will not be revealed.
We recommend that the online service we use is Zoom or Whats app calling due to the security and encryption that both platforms use, this helps to ensure that our communication will not be intercepted by a third party. If you choose our counselling service, we will exchange contact details, we will provide further details after you have completed and returned the agreement document below, to allow us to have a discussion and organise our arrangements for sessions.
At the end of our counselling agreement copies of your details will be kept for period of 5 years (or 5 years after the clients 18thbirthday) and then destroyed by shredding after this time. I abide by the GDPR regulations imposed and adhere to all procedures. I am registered with ICO (Information Commissioners Office) and adhere to all procedures.
I have an ethical obligation to disclose to the relevant authorities, if a client discloses intending to cause serious harm to themselves or to others. If this is the case, I would hope that counsellor and the client could discuss these thoughts and report them together to seek additional support for the client.
We are legally bound to make a disclosure to the police and/or other authorities if a client reveals to a counsellor, that they are involved in activities relating to the child protection act, human or drug trafficking, terrorism or if I believe you are at risk of being radicalised.
In addition, if at any point during the counselling you were in need of emergency support, the counsellor may ask for your consent to contact your GP or recommend alternative avenues of support other than counselling. If a counsellor felt that there was a physical health emergency, they would contact the emergency services via calling 999.