· I am required to have regular supervision to ensure safe, ethical, and professional practice. I may discuss parts of our work during these sessions, but full names or identifiable information is never shared.
· I am required to keep accurate and appropriate notes of our work together which will not be shared with anyone, unless requested by a court of law. I record notes securely on an external hard drive that is password protected. Notes are anonymised to maintain complete client confidentiality. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Any information that I keep is subject to the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 18). More information can be found at ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources.
· I am bound by the BACP’s Ethical Framework to protect client’s confidentiality. Therefore, everything that we discuss is confidential except in certain circumstances, such as Harm to self or others, I reserve the right to break confidentiality if I think that you have become a danger to yourself or other people. I will attempt to discuss this with you and my supervisor first, but this may not always be possible.
· For legal and ethical reasons, I am not bound by confidentiality if you are disclosing information relating to serious crime, this includes but is not limited to, safeguarding issues regarding children or vulnerable adults, crimes regarding substantial financial gains and losses, and acts of terrorism.
· In certain situations where you may have declared a clear and definite intention to end your life, or if I have reason to believe this to be true, we may after a careful discussion agree to put in place a ’keep safe policy’ where you will agree to take certain measures, such as get in touch with your mental health crisis team, or talk to the Samaritans as a way of safeguarding and ensuring your safety.
· Recording, whether audio or visual, is not permitted during the entirety of our sessions. This includes both face to face, and online sessions.
*Disclaimer – I take all necessary steps to ensure complete client confidentiality. When choosing to work online, we are subject to third parties when using hosting platforms such as zoom. I mitigate responsibility of security breaches of third-party operators.
Sophie Hirst Counselling
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