Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by Silver Cloud Hypnotherapy, accessible at Silvercloudhypnotherapy.co.uk and how we use it. If you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us by email at Silvercloudhypnotherapy.co.uk.

Your Privacy

I am committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in a safe, secure, and confidential manner, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This Privacy Policy explains what information I collect, why I collect it, how it is stored, and your rights regarding your personal data.

Your Rights

In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights :

  • The right to access, update or to delete the information we have on you.
  • The right of rectification.
  • The right to object.
  • The right of restriction.
  • The right to data portability
  • The right to withdraw consent

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

We are a Data Controller of your information.

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the Personal Information we collect and the specific context in which we collect the information. We only collect the minimum amount of data required. to allow for your successful treatment:

  • Our needs to perform a contract with you
  • You have given us permission to do so
  • Processing your personal information is in our legitimate interests
  • We need to comply with the law

Personal data that we process shall not be kept for longer than is necessary. We will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies.

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. If you wish to be informed what Personal Information we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us by email.

What Information I Collect

I only collect the minimum amount of personal information necessary to support our therapeutic work together. This may include:

  • Your name
  • Telephone number
  • Email address
  • Relevant health or wellbeing information you choose to share
  • Brief session notes
  • Address details where required for safeguarding or other essential purposes

Why I Collect Your Information

Your information is collected so that I can:

  • Arrange and manage appointments
  • Contact you between sessions
  • Send Zoom links for online sessions
  • Maintain brief clinical notes to support your therapy
  • Fulfil professional and legal obligations
  • Safeguard vulnerable clients where necessary

Session Notes

Session notes are kept to an absolute minimum and contain only information relevant to your therapeutic support. Notes are concise, factual, and professional in nature. Where hypnosis scripts are prepared, I may record brief details about your goals or preferences to create personalised therapeutic material.

How Your Information Is Stored

Paper records are stored securely in a locked cabinet, with keys kept in a secure location. Premises are kept locked to provide additional security. Electronic devices and communications are protected using passwords and appropriate security measures where reasonably possible. I take reasonable steps to ensure your information remains confidential and secure at all times.

While reasonable security measures are used, email and online communications cannot be guaranteed as completely secure.

Some third-party providers used for email or online sessions may process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, appropriate safeguards are relied upon in accordance with UK GDPR.

How Long Your Information Is Kept

In accordance with professional requirements:

  • Adult client records are retained for 8 years after therapy ends
  • Records relating to clients under 18 are retained until 8 years after their 18th birthday

After this period, records are securely destroyed.

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.

Safeguarding

If you are under 18 years old, I may retain your address details and parent/guardian contact information during the period we are working together where necessary for safeguarding purposes. If you disclose vulnerability, including self-harm or suicidal ideation, or serious welfare concerns are disclosed, relevant contact information may also be retained for safeguarding purposes. This information will be deleted when it is no longer necessary.

Confidentiality

Information shared during sessions is treated confidentially.

Confidentiality may only be broken if:

  • There is a serious concern regarding your safety or the safety of another person
  • I am legally required to disclose information
  • Safeguarding obligations apply

Where possible, this would be discussed with you first.

Online Privacy (Website)

Consent

By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, and we invite you to check this page periodically to ensure you are happy with any changes to it.

Contact Form

When you contact us via our website Contact form, we will collect your name and email address. By using the Contact Form you consent to us using this information for correspondence purposes, notably to discuss your interest in Hypnotherapy treatment and to book an appointment. To have your email deleted from our records, please contact us by email.

Blog Subscription Service

When you sign up to our Blog Subscription service, we will collect your email address. By using the Blog Subscription service you consent to us using this information in order to send you by email our Blog Posts as and when they are published. To unsubscribe and have your email deleted from this service, either click “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of a Blog Post email, or contact us by email.

Testimonials

Subject to your prior consent, we may publish information you provide about treatment you received from us as a Testimonial on our website. Such information may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such information by others. To have your testimonial deleted from our website please contact us by email.

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.

 

Complaints

Should you have any complaints about the recording of, retention of. or use of your personal private data then please contact me via my  contact form in the first instance. I aim to respond to all complaints regarding your personal data within 28 days.

The Information Commissioners Office can also be contacted if you remain unsatisfied with your complaint resolution.

Contact

If you have any concerns or questions regarding your personal information or this Privacy Policy, please contact: Jane@silvercloudhypnotherapy.co.uk

 

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to reflect legal, professional, or operational changes.

The most recent version will always be available upon request or via the website where applicable.