I truly believe anyone can choose counselling for a huge variety of reasons.

Whatever the reason you find yourself seeking out counselling or therapy, here at The Talking Space, I will offer you a confidential, safe place to seek what you feel you may need.

Once you have decided you would like to progress with me we arrange our first session. This first, slightly longer appointment will involve some getting to know each other and an opportunity for you to ask any questions. It will involve discussion around the therapeutic boundaries and our contract which describes our work together. You will be sent a contract which will outline our rights and responsibilities. You will also receive an intake form for you to fill out for some necessary personal information which is kept safe following GDPR.

I am aware it can feel a little daunting taking that first step. Please just reach out via my online form, email or even text message and I will contact you to arrange our first free of charge discussion over the phone.

All appointments are subject to availability. If you have flexible availability, I will offer you the first appointment I have free. If however, you have a specific day and time in mind I will advise you of a date when a first session is available.

This depends on your own specific therapy needs. Some people have anything from six sessions.

Others choose to have a more ‘open door’ policy and dip in and out of counselling as and when they feel they need it. It’s up to you and that is ok. I offer ‘reviews’ every six sessions which allows space for us to consider your therapeutic journey and counselling process to date.

The room in Oldmeldrum is fully accessible to wheelchair users.

Payment is due prior to each session. After the initial session, some people choose to pay in ‘blocks’ others ‘pay as they go’. Online sessions can be paid prior to your appointment via bank transfer. In person sessions are also paid in advance and can be paid by bank transfer, cash or contactless card payment. The Talking Space will always provide an invoice.

I understand that life doesn’t always go to plan. If a change of appointment time is required, please advise 24 hours prior to the start of your original appointment and I will do my best to offer an alternative session time. Last minute cancellations within 24 hours or ‘no shows’ will be charged at the full rate. 

Counselling sessions are strictly confidential. What is shared with me in The Talking Space stays there. However, there are some exceptions which will be discussed during your first session. If during sessions, you pose a significant risk of danger to yourself or to others then the right to confidentiality will be discussed and relevant parties will need to be notified.

Currently, I work with adults and young adults aged 17 and over.

General

The organisation “The Talking Space” is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under reference number: A8941847. I, Tamsin Brett, company founder take the privacy of your information very seriously and this Privacy Notice is designed to tell you about my practice regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal data which may be obtained via the website or other means including online forms, email, or phone.

This notice is governed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and any other applicable data or privacy legislation.

This notice applies to personal data provided by clients, potential clients and any other individual’s data The Talking Space may hold or process. Please be assured that any information provided by which you can be identified will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

If The Talking Space does provide Counselling or Psychotherapeutic services to you, please note a separate privacy notice will apply and will be provided to you. The Talking Space does not process personal data on a large scale, but will hold and process personal data in order to supply the service and the following explains how this is done:

Your Personal Information recorded by The Talking Space

If you initially contact The Talking Space via the website ‘contact me’ page, I will hold your “contact information” such as your name, email address, telephone/mobile number to be used to communicate with you and to provide the counselling service.

Prior or during the initial consultation other personal information that may be relevant to the service provided such as your date of birth, address and information around your referral will also be collected.

The Talking Space uses this personal information to gain understanding of  your specific needs and to provide you with a better service. Furthemore, gathering of your data is for the following reasons:

• To contact you and assess your needs
• Answer any questions you may have
• Arrange and send confirmation of your initial consultation

How The Talking Space stores your data

I use a professional and secure cloud based practice management software called ‘Writeupp’ to store all your data. Writeupp is GDPR ready & ISO 27001 certified (this is a globally recognised information governance and security standard) software system: Please note that Writeupp is also trusted by NHS therapy services.

Confidentiality and Disclosure of information:

All sessions will be conducted in confidence, the date, time, session number and brief notes will be documented and stored securely.

Confidentiality, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR), will be maintained and applied to all records including data and information.

However, there may be cases where The Talking Space has a duty to share information regarding (but not limited to) the following:

• When compelled to give evidence by a court of law
• If it is considered there is a real possibility of serious harm to yourself or others
• If information is of such a gravity that confidentiality cannot be maintained for example:
• Safeguarding adults (adult protection)
• Safeguarding children (child protection)
• Offences involving children under the age of 18
• In cases of terrorism, fraud, money laundering or radicalisation

On occasion, The Talking Space will transfer your personal data to the sub-processor which includes the web hosting provider 123 Reg. For more information on how 123 Reg processes personal data, please refer to their privacy notice which is found on their website.

Your Permission:

The Talking Space will seek your permission to:

• Contact you via your preferred method and will only leave a message or send reminders with your consent.
• Share information outside of the above exceptions.
• Use anonymous details for continued professional development (for example in further training).
• Publish any marketing material such as case studies or testimonials including those using a pseudonym.

Security:

Transmission of data and information via the website is not a secure or an encrypted transmission method for sending your personal data, unless otherwise indicated on the website. Your attention is therefore drawn to the fact that any information and personal data carried over the internet is not secure. Information and personal data may be intercepted, lost, corrupted or accessed by other people.

Upon receipt of your personal data The Talking Space is committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, there are appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information that is collected online.

Cookies

By accessing www.thetalkingspace.co.uk you are agreeing to the use of cookies as described below. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

‘Cookie Information’ is processed on the basis that you have consented to the use of cookies or in the case of strictly necessary cookies, this is based on the Talking Space’s legitimate interests in providing Counselling or Psychotherapeutic services to you.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. Please note, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website and some functionality may not work. Most browsers will allow you to see what cookies you have got and delete these on an individual basis.

Other Third-party cookies

Other organisations may also set their own cookies on some pages of the talking space website. For example Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. The organisation that has created this link will record that you have done this.

Links to external websites

The Talking Space website does contain links to other websites which may be of interest and relevance to you. However, once you have used these links to leave www.thetalkingspace.co.uk, please note that Tamsin does not have any control over those other websites. Furthermore, Tamsin cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy policy. Please, take care and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Google Analytics

Each time you visit a website Google analytics automatically tracks information such as (but not limited to) your geographical location, IP address, browser type, browser version, operating system, referral source, page views, length of visit, the times and dates you visit the site, navigation paths, whether you are a new visitor or a returning visitor.

When you visit www.thetalkingspace.co.uk the information collected by Google analytics may be used by Tamsin to customise the website according to your interests and help improve products and services.

Data Retention

The Talking Space’s current data retention policy is to delete or destroy (to the extent we are able to) personal data in accordance with the following retention periods:

The Talking Space will hold information for registered and non-registered users for 7 years from the date on which the data is collected, or, if later, from the date on which you stop being a registered user.

The Talking Space reviews the personal data (and the  data categories) held on a regular basis to ensure it is still relevant to the business and is accurate. If we discover that certain data being held is no longer necessary or accurate,  reasonable steps will be taken to correct or securely delete this data as required.

Your privacy rights

The Talking Space will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless you give permission or are required by law to do so.

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information. If you have previously agreed to The Talking Space using your anonymous personal information for continued professional development or marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time. Please put this in writing to Tamsin Brett, The Talking Space, 10 Bon Accord Square, Aberdeen, AB11 6DJ or [email protected] Tamsin will do her best to meet these requests as soon as reasonably possible.

The Talking Space aims to keep all personal data up to date, if you believe that any information held about you is incorrect or incomplete, please put this in writing as soon as possible, at the above address and any information found to be incorrect will be corrected promptly.

You have the right to:

• request that your personal data will not be processed;
• ask for a copy of any personal data that is held;
• request the correction or update the personal data that is held;
• request that your personal data is not used to contact you for direct marketing purposes;
• request that your personal data is not used for profiling purposes;
• request that your personal data will not be used to contact you at all;
• request that your personal data be deleted from our records;
• withdraw any permission you have given us to process your personal data.

You may request details of personal information which is held about you under the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR). If you would like a copy of any stored personal information, please write to Tamsin Brett, The Talking Space, 10 Bon Accord Square, Aberdeen AB11 6DJ

Amendments and Updates

This privacy policy may be amended or updated from time to time without notice to you, in which case, the amended version will be published on the website. You confirm that The Talking Space shall not be liable to you or any third party for any changes made to this privacy policy. Please note, It is your responsibility to check this page from time to time to ensure that you feel comfortable with any changes.

Complaints

If at any time you would like to contact us with your views about The Talking Space’s privacy notice, or with any enquiry or complaint relating to your personal data or how it’s managed, you can do so by emailing [email protected]

If this does not resolve any issues and would like to make a further complaint, please contact the ICO by visiting http://www.ico.org.uk/ for further assistance.