Privacy & Data Protection Policy
Last Updated: June 2026
1. Important Information & Who We Are
Welcome to the privacy policy for Right Direction Counselling Services and our professional training division, Chambers Counselling Institute (collectively referred to as "we", "us" or "our" in this policy). We respect your privacy and are deeply committed to protecting your personal data.
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we operate as a Data Controller. This means we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.
Our practice is fully registered with the ICO under the UK Data Protection Register. We process all personal and special category data in strict accordance with UK law, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Ethical Framework, and the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) code of ethics.
2. The Data We Collect About You
Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, grouped as follows:
- Identity & Contact Data: Includes your first name, last name, email address, telephone number, and residential address.
- Student & Professional Data (Training Candidates): Academic qualifications, entry portfolio data, admissions interview notes, attendance records, and CPCAB course assessment marking.
- Special Category Data (Clinical Clients): Highly sensitive personal data concerning your mental health, physical health, lifestyle habits, and relational history (collected specifically during individual, couples, or Gottman Method therapy tracks).
- Financial Data: Bank account details, transaction card fingerprints, and tuition fee or therapeutic session payment histories managed securely via our third-party processors.
3. How We Use Your Personal Data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use your data under the following legal bases:
| Purpose/Activity | Type of Data | Lawful Basis for Processing (UK GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| To register you as a clinical client or coaching participant. | Identity & Contact | Performance of a contract with you. |
| The delivery of clinical therapy, couples counseling, and Gottman Method frameworks. | Identity, Contact & Special Category (Health) | Explicit Consent alongside the provision of health or social care treatment (Article 9(2)(h)). |
| To process admissions, enroll you in CPCAB tracks, and manage course portfolios. | Identity, Contact, Financial & Academic | Performance of a contract; Compliance with an awarding body legal obligation. |
| To securely process payments and prevent fraudulent transactions. | Identity, Contact & Financial | Performance of a contract; Legitimate interests. |
4. Data Security & Third-Party Integrations
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way. Access to your clinical or academic data is strictly limited to George Hamilton as your therapist, coach, or lead tutor.
We utilize trusted, encrypted third-party applications to run our practice safely. These processors include:
- Acuity Scheduling / Squarespace: For secure appointment reservation, course intake enrollment, and booking notifications.
- Zoom: For end-to-end encrypted delivery of secure virtual counseling and interactive distance training.
- Google Workspace / Padlet: For secure email communication, student portfolio management, and cloud infrastructure.
5. Data Retention: How Long We Keep It
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, insurance, or professional body reporting requirements.
- Clinical & Therapy Records: In compliance with standard UK psychological insurance guidelines and professional practice frameworks, your clinical notes and assessment frameworks are securely stored for exactly 7 years following the formal conclusion of your therapy track, after which they are permanently deleted.
- Training & Academic Records: Retained for the duration required by the CPCAB and external quality assurance verifiers to safely validate your counseling certifications.
6. Your Legal Rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under UK data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including the right to:
- Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request").
- Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
- Request erasure of your personal data (subject to our overriding legal insurance obligations to retain clinical health summaries).
- Object to processing or request restriction of processing of your personal data.
- Withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your special category clinical data.
7. Contact & Complaints
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our data protection practices, or if you wish to exercise any of your legal rights, please contact us directly:
Secure Email Address: info@therdcs.com
Primary Service Corridors: West Yorkshire (Wakefield, Doncaster, Pontefract, and online)
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.