Privacy Policy

This privacy policy is for this website, www.ioanadulcu.com, served by Ioana Dulcu Therapy Clinic and governs the privacy of the users who choose to use it.

The policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations and requirements of the users, the website and the website owners. Furthermore, the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy.

Introduction

Your privacy is very important to me, and you can trust that I will keep your personal information secure and use it solely for the purpose you provided it to me. I follow all current data protection laws, including the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

This privacy policy details how I will handle your personal information from our first contact until after your therapy concludes. It includes information on the legal basis and purpose for processing your information, your data protection rights, whether providing your personal information is mandatory, the duration of storage, other parties who may receive your personal information, the use of automated decision-making or profiling, any intention to transfer your information to a different country.

If you have any questions about my data protection policy, please feel free to contact me via email at hello[@]ioanadulcu.com

Credit

This document was created using a template from SEQ Legal (https://seqlegal.com).

Contact and communication

Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form for to email submission process but advise users using such form to email processes that they do so at their own risk.

This website and its owners use any information submitted to provide you with further information about the related products and services I offer. This includes using your details to subscribe to any email newsletter program the website operates, but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting any form to the email process. Or whereby have previously purchased from or enquired about purchasing a product or service from my website that the email newsletter relates to. This is by no means an entire list of your user rights regarding receiving email marketing material. Your details are not passed on to third parties without your consent.

External links

Although this website only looks to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external links mentioned throughout this website.

The owners of this website cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite their best efforts. Users should therefore note that they click on external links at their own risk, and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

Adverts and sponsored links

This website may contain sponsored links and adverts. These will typically be served through the advertising partners, whom may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve.

Clicking on any such adverts will send you to the advertisers’ website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track the number of referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may, in turn, be saved on your computer’s hard drive. Users should therefore note that they click on sponsored external links at their own risk, and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.

Social Media platforms

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate in are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform, respectively.

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate/engage upon them with due care and caution concerning their own privacy and personal details. This website nor its owners will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email.

This website may use social sharing buttons that help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform. Before using such social sharing buttons, users are advised to do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.

Shortened links in social media

Through their social media platform accounts, this website and its owners may share links to relevant web pages. Some social media platforms shorten lengthy urls [web addresses] by default.

Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened urls published by this website and its owners on social media platforms. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine urls are published, many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking, and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.

Use of cookies and web analytics

This website uses cookies to better the users’ experience while visiting the website. Where applicable, this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit user consent before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer or device.

Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computer hard drive that track, save and store information about the useuser’steractions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website. Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers’ hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.

This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computers hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but it will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy for further information.

Other cookies may be stored on your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.

I also use the advertising analytic services of Meta (Facebook) so that I can continually improve my service to you. This company will deliver relevant content from me based on information about yourself and your pattern of internet use that you have provided them with.

You can read Meta’s privacy policy for further information.

Legal obligations for holding and using your personal information

According to the GDPR, I am required to have a lawful basis for handling my personal data, and the specific basis depends on the stage of processing. If you have completed therapy with me, I will rely on legitimate interest as the lawful basis for holding and using your personal information. However, if you are currently receiving therapy, coaching, or seeking access to other services or products, I will process your personal data only if it is necessary for fulfilling our contract.

Moreover, the GDPR states that I handle any sensitive personal information, which is referred to as “special category personal information” appropriately. In the case of therapy, the lawful basis for processing any special categories of personal information is that it is required for health treatment and necessary for a contract between you and me as a therapist.

How I use your information

When you reach out to me with an inquiry regarding my therapy or other services, I will gather information to assist me in meeting your needs. This information will include details provided on your pre-assessment form to evaluate your suitability for therapy with me. Additionally, your GP or another health professional may share your information with me when making a referral, or a parent or trusted individual may provide your details when making an inquiry on your behalf.

However, if you choose not to proceed, I will ensure that all your personal data is erased within three months. If you wish to have this information deleted sooner, please inform me, and I will take care of it accordingly.

During your therapy sessions, please be assured that all discussions with me are confidential. Confidentiality will only be breached if necessary, as outlined in the first clause of the informed consent to therapy document that you signed at the beginning of therapy.

To ensure the smooth running of psychotherapy, I will maintain a record of your personal details, which will be kept securely and not shared with any third party. If I make written notes during our sessions, they will be stored on a MacBook Pro device under password-protected conditions.

My primary modes of communication are iOS iMessage, WhatsApp, and email, as these can be kept secure. All correspondence will be stored securely for five years following the conclusion of our work together.

After our psychotherapy or supervision has ended, your records will be retained for five years from the date of our last contact, after which they will be securely destroyed. If you wish for your information to be deleted earlier, please let me know.

Use of additional services

If I need to store your personal information for non-therapy purposes, such as sending you newsletters, or information about products or services, I will first ask for your formal consent before doing so. You will not receive any such information unless you have granted permission. This information will only be retained as long as there is a legitimate reason for doing so, such as sending you the requested information, products, or services.

After a period of three years, this information will be securely destroyed unless there is a legal requirement to retain it for a longer period. If you wish for your information to be deleted earlier than this, please let me know.

Third-party recipients of your personal data

I do not disclose your personal information to any third party. However, financial transactions relating to my services may be handled by my payment services providers. I will share transaction data with my payment services providers only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds.

In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data, such as the ones mentioned in the Confidentiality section in the Informed Consent to Treatment, I may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. I may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for establishing, exercising, or defending legal claims, whether in court proceedings or an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

Data security

To ensure the security of your data, I employ various measures, such as utilizing password-protected and encrypted devices and promptly eliminating any elements that may pose a security risk.

Remote sessions

I conduct therapy sessions remotely using Zoom.

In order to be able to take advantage of all its features, I operate Zoom TLS 1.2 with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit algorithm and use their waiting room feature to ensure the security and privacy of meetings.

All these remote services operate and offer their services in a GDPR-compliant manner. You can read Zoom’s privacy notice at https://explore.zoom.us/en/gdpr/