Rashpal Panesar-Gipson Privacy Policy 

Your privacy is a top priority. Your privacy is very important to me and you can be confident that your personal information will be kept safe and secure and will only be used for the purpose it was given to me. I adhere to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (the GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

This privacy notice tells you what I will do with your personal information from initial point of contact through to after your therapy has ended, including:

•        Why I am able to process your information and what purpose I am processing it for

•        Whether you have to provide it to me

•        How long I store it for

•        Whether there are other recipients of your personal information

•        Whether I intend to transfer it to another country,

•        Whether I do automated decision-making or profiling, and

•        Your data protection rights.

I am happy to chat through any questions you might have about my data protection policy and you can contact me via rashpalpanesargipson@gmail.com

‘Data controller’ is the term used to describe the person/organisation that collects and stores and has responsibility for people’s personal data. In this instance, the data controller is me.



I am registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (ICO registered number ZB505369).

My postal address is: 25 Herbert Rd, IG38AL. My phone number is: 07736283916. My email address is: rashpalpanesargipson@gmail.com.

If you have any queries about this privacy notice or about any aspect of our data management, please contact me at rashpalpanesargipson@gmail.com .

I'll update this privacy notice regularly to ensure it continues to comply with the latest regulations and best practice.

This privacy notice was last amended on 01.08.2024.

The GDPR states that I must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. There are different lawful bases depending on the stage at which I am processing your data. I have explained these below:

If you have had therapy with me and it has now ended, I will use legitimate interest as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information.

If you are currently having therapy or if you are in contact with me to consider therapy, I will process your personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract.

The GDPR also makes sure that I look after any sensitive personal information that you may disclose to me appropriately.

This type of information is called ‘special category personal information’. The lawful basis for me processing any special categories of personal information is consent initially. I will then retain any counselling records in case of the need to reference them in the future (the official legal basis is to defend against potential legal claims).

Initial contact. 

When you contact me with an enquiry about my counselling services I will collect information to help me satisfy your enquiry. This will include your email address, the address at which you are calling and your phone number. Alternatively, your GP or other health professional may send me your details when making a referral or a parent or trusted individual may give me your details when making an enquiry on your behalf. If you decide not to proceed I will ensure all your personal data is deleted within 6 months. If you would like me to delete this information sooner, just let me know

While you are accessing counselling.

Rest assured that everything you discuss with me is confidential. That confidentiality will only be broken if there is significant danger of harm to yourself, or others. I am also bound by the law to report to the police if I learn of information relating to acts of terrorism, money laundering or drug trafficking during the course of my work. I will always try to speak to you about this first, unless there are safeguarding issues that prevent this.

I will keep a record of your personal details to help the counselling services run smoothly. These details are kept securely on a private laptop, with and each document is also password protected with a different password and are not shared with any third party. I have a Clinical Will which means that in case I am unable to contact you for any reason, a professional colleague will have access to a document with your contact details and can contact you. They are bound by the same ethics and confidentiality requirements as myself and will only use your details in the scenario that there is no possible way that I can make contact.

 I will keep written notes of each session, these are anonymised and kept in a password-protected document on my device. For security reasons I do not retain text messages for more than 6 months. If there is relevant information contained in a text message I will add this to your session notes. Likewise, any email correspondence will be deleted after 6 months if it is not important. If necessary I will add relevant information to your session notes.



After counselling has ended.

Once counselling has ended your records will be kept for 7 years from the end of our contact with each other and are then securely destroyed. If you want me to delete your information sooner than this, please tell me.

I sometimes share personal data with third parties, for example, where I have contracted with a supplier to carry out specific tasks. In such cases I have carefully selected which partners I work with. I take great care to ensure that I have a contract with the third party that states what they are allowed to do with the data I share with them. I ensure that they do not use your information in any way other than the task for which they have been contracted.

I take the security of the data I hold about you very seriously and as such I take every effort to make sure it is kept secure. I use devices with secure passwords and password protect any documents within this that may contain any personal information.

When someone visits my website, I use a third party service, IONOS Internet Limited to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow IONOS Internet Limited to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website. I use legitimate interests as my lawful basis for holding and using your personal information in this way when you visit my website.

I use IONOS Internet Limited so that I can continually improve my service to you, You can read IONOS Internet Limited privacy notice here https://www.ionos.co.uk/terms-gtc/privacy-policy.

I use IONOS Internet Limited as the content management system for our website - find out about IONOS Internet Limited and data protection here: https://www.ionos.co.uk/terms-gtc/privacy-policy.

We and our trusted partners use cookies and other technologies in our related services, including when you visit our Site or access our services. 

A "cookie" is a small piece of information that a website assigns to your device while you are viewing a website. Cookies are very helpful and can be used for various different purposes. These purposes include allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, enabling automatic activation of certain features, remembering your preferences and making the interaction between you and our Services quicker and easier. Cookies are also used to help make sure that the advertisements you see are relevant to you and your interests and to compile statistical data on your use of our Services. 

The Site uses the following types of cookies:

a. 'session cookies' , which are stored only temporarily during a browsing session in order to allow normal use of the system and are deleted from your device when the browser is closed; 

b. 'persistent cookies ', which are read only by the Site, saved on your computer for a fixed period and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Such cookies are used where we need to know who you are for repeat visits, for example to allow us to store your preferences for the next sign-in; 

c. 'third-party cookies' , which are set by other online services who run content on the page you are viewing, for example by third-party analytics companies who monitor and analyse our web access.

Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but Personal Information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. You may remove the cookies by following the instructions of your device preferences; however, if you choose to disable cookies, some features of our Site may not operate properly and your online experience may be limited.

We use 1&1 WebAnalytics technology to collect information about your use of the Site. The tool collects information such as how often users access the Site, which pages they visit when they do so, etc. The tool does not collect any Personal Information and is only used by our Site hosting and operating service provider to improve the Site and services.

If you have any general questions about the Site or the information we collect about you and how we use it, you can contact us at rashpalpanesargipson@gmail.com

Rashpal Panesar-Gipson.

Last Modified   01/08/2024