Doreen McCarthy Reflexology Privacy Policy
PRIVACY POLICY
Your personal information General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
GDPR provides legal protection for personal information I hold and why and what your rights are.
A copy of this document will be provided to you if you so wish.
Doreen McCarthy
26 Methuen Street
Liverpool 15
L15 1EG
doreenmccarthy181@yahoo.co.uk
07598170066
The purpose of processing client Data;
In order to give professional Reflexology and other holistic treatments, I will need to gather and retain potentially sensitive information about your health. I will only use this information for informing your treatments and associated recommendations concerning aspects of health and wellbeing, which I will offer you.
I also take basic contact details and information via a client consultation form to allow me to contact you and handle or change bookings if need be. I may receive contact information from you via phone, email or via my website.
Lawful basis for holding and using client information;
The lawful basis under which I hold and use your information is;
My legitimate interests ie: my requirement to retain the information in order to provide you with the best possible treatment options and advice.
As I hold special category data (ie: health related information) the additional condition under which I hold and use this information is for me to fulfil my role as a health care practitioner.
What information I hold and what I do with it;
In order to give professional reflexology and other holistic treatments, I will need to ask for and keep information about your health. I will only use this for informing treatments and any advice that I give as a result of your treatment. The information to be held is:
Your contact details:
Medical history and other health related information, which is taken on initial consultation and may be updated as and when changes occur:
Treatment details and related notes after each treatment given:
I am a registered member of the AoR and bound by the AoR code of practice and ethics.
I will NOT share your information with anyone else without explaining why it is necessary and getting your explicit consent first.
All information I hold about you is locked away securely and accessed only by me.
At some points during a treatment, I may ask for permission to take photographs of a part of your body to measure the difference etc. I may ask if I can use photographs on my website to advertise, you have the right to say no. No identifiable parts of your body will be used and if you agree to me using the photographs, you have the right to ask me to remove them and delete them at anytime.
How long I retain your information for;
I will keep your information for the following periods:
“Claims occurring insurance”( records to be kept for 7 years after last treatment)
Law regarding children’s records , records to be kept until the age of 25.
It is a requirement of my insurance that the above data to be held for the above time. After this time your information will be destroyed by shredding, any digital information will be completely deleted.
Protecting your data;
I am committed to ensuring that your personal data is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure I have put in place appropriate, technical, physical and managerial procedures to safeguard and keep secure the information I collect from you. Your consultation forms are only available to me at all times and will be locked away in a secure area.
I will contact you using your contact preferences you give me (including phone number and email address) in relation to:
Appointment times:
Therapy information or information related to your health:
Special offers and promotions ( You may unsubscribe to any marketing emails at any time):
Your rights;
Your data protection rights, under data protection law you have rights including;
Your right of access; You have the right to ask me for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification; You have the right to ask me to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask me to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure; You have the right to ask me to erase your personal information in certain circumstances (right to be forgotten)
Your right to restriction of processing; You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing; You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability; You have the right to ask that I transfer the personal information you give to me to another organisation or to you in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make this request, I have one month to respond to you.
Therapists rights;
If you don’t agree to your therapist keeping records of information about you and your treatments, or if you don’t allow them to use the information in the way they need for treatments, then they won’t be able to treat you.
Your therapist must keep records of treatment for a certain period of time as described above, which may mean that even if you ask them to erase any details about you, they may have to keep these details until after that period has passed.
Your therapist can move their records between their computers and IT systems without your permission if your details are protected from being seen by others.
Complaints procedure;
If you wish to make a complaint, please submit in writing by email or post using the contact details above. To help me investigate your concern as efficiently as possible, please include;
Your full name/ preferred contact details.
A clear description of your concern and which data protection right(s) you believe have been affected.
The approximate date(s) when the issue occurred.
Any relevant correspondence or documents.
Complaints process;
Once we receive your complaint, we will follow the steps below. We are committed to handling all complaints promptly, fairly and confidentially.
Acknowledgement within 30 days, we will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 30 days of receiving it, confirming that we have recorded it and it will be investigated.
Request further information, if we need any additional details to fully investigate your complaint, we will contact you as soon as possible to explain what we need and why.
Investigation and review;
We will carry out a thorough and impartial review of your complaint. We will arrange a realistic time scale with you once we have all necessary information and keep you updated if there are any delays.
Decision and outcome;
We will communicate the outcome of our investigation to you clearly and in writing within one calendar month of receiving all the information needed (this may be extended by up to two further calendar months for more complex complaints) we will notify you if this is the case.
Closure or escalation;
If you are satisfied with the outcome, we will close your complaint. If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer your complaint to the ICO free of charge.
Escalating your complaint to the ICO;
If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the information commissioners office (ICO) the UK’s independent supervisory authority for data protection. This service is free of charge.
ICO website; https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
ICO helpline; 0303 123 1113 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
ICO postal address; Information Commissioners Office,Wycliffe Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Confidentiality Exceptions
Everything you share with me during our sessions is treated as confidential. However there are specific circumstances where I may need to share your information without your consent.
Risk of serious harm- If I believe you or someone else is at risk of serious harm, I may need to share information with appropriate services.
Safeguarding concerns- If I have concerns about the safety of a child or a vulnerable adult, I have a legal and ethical duty to report this to the relevant authorities.
Court order- If I receive a court order requiring disclosure of your records, I must comply.
Wherever possible, I will discuss any disclosure with you first, unless doing so would itself put someone at risk.
Doreen McCarthy Reflexology 18th June 2026