Privacy & Confidentiality Policy

Here at Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy, we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your personal data. Our privacy and cookie policies are designed to meet the exacting standards of Irish and European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Privacy Policy

General Statement
We respect your right to privacy. Each time you visit introspect.ie some information about your visit may be stored; non-personal identifying information for the purposes of collecting visit statistics; and, personal information submitted as an enquiry as to our services.

Collection and use of non-personal information
Statistical and analytical information provides general information about visitors to introspect.ie and our related domains; introspectcounselling.com and introspectcounselling.ie, specifically;
• The number of people who visit and return to these sites
• The pages visited
• Entry and exit pages.
This data helps us monitor traffic, ensuring sufficient capacity and optimal speeds can be delivered during your time with us. This data also assists us in understanding trends in terms of popular services, visitor behaviours and for search engine optimisation with Google search.

Collection and use of personal information – Enquiry Form
You may submit limited personal information via our services enquiry form. This data is converted to an email format and forwarded to our encrypted, confidential email database where it is stored until we can respond to your enquiry. Here at Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy, we do not sell or provide your data on third parties.

Social Links
Social Media buttons on the introspect.ie and related domains point to the Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy pages on those platforms. Please consult the privacy and confidentiality policies of those platform providers for your protection.

Therapists at Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy comply with the Codes of Ethics of both the Irish Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and the Irish Association for Humanistic and Integrative Counselling & Psychotherapy (IAHIP). We have adopted ‘Children First’ Guidelines for the protection and welfare of children, comply with mandatory reporting obligations under various acts of parliament of the Irish Government. We operate a private and confidential service but it is important that in an Irish context, confidentiality is not absolute. Limits to confidentiality exist where (for example):

• Where there is a clear and present danger to you, a child or another person.
• In the cases of retrospective abuse during childhood.
• Where subpoenaed by a court of law.

In these circumstances, should it be necessary to alert third parties, we will always work collaboratively with you where possible.

Privacy Notice

Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy (“we”, “us”, “our”) is designated as a data controller “Controller” under the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (“GDPR“) legislation with respect to personal data supplied to us for the purposes of conducting counselling and/or psychotherapy. It is important that you understand your rights under GDPR. This section addresses our obligations and responsibilities as Controller and your rights as a result.

1. What is Personal Data?
“Personal Data” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“Data Subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier such as a user IP addresses or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person and includes Special Categories of Personal Data; “Special Categories of Personal Data” is any Personal Data that reveals racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership; genetic data or biometric data and data concerning health or sex life and sexual orientation.

2. Personal Data Collected and Processed
We collect and process your Personal Data only relating to our therapeutic relationship with you. This Personal Data includes: your name and contact details, including your address, phone number and email address; Communications you have had with us in any form; other Personal Data relating to you that you provide or is generated in the course of our therapeutic relationship including any consent you have given and your use of the introspect.ie website.

3. Technical Data Collected
Statistical and analytical data is collected on all visitors to our website. This non-personal data cannot identify you individually, but instead is generic information used to optimise our online services e.g. website performance, usage information and frequently visited areas of our website.

4. Purposes for which we hold your Personal Data
Personal data is collected as a result of you initiating contact with us via our website, mobile phone, email or post. This data is used for the following purposes:

• Referrals to one of our therapists
• Providing information about our service
• Contracting (informed consent) for use of our services
• Comply with legal and ethical obligations
• Providing treatment and care during your time in our service
• Follow up and re-engagement with our services in the future (as initiated by you).

Our legal basis for collecting and using this information under GDPR is as follows:
that it is necessary for the execution of our contract with you;
that it is in our legitimate interest to do so; and/or
that you have provided consent to us for the use of your Personal Data.
We respect your right to withdraw consent to treatment, contact with our service and the provision of services at any time. However, data collected must be retained by us in compliance with insurance and professional obligations. Data will be retained for 10 years from the date of first contact with you.

5. Disclosure of your Personal Data to third parties
At Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy, we will not trade, sell or share your personal details with third parties unless lawfully or ethically obliged. These may include (for example); public authorities and bodies where required or permitted by law, such as TUSLA, An Garda Síochána or other law enforcement authorities for the purposes of prevention, investigation or detection of crime; and to comply with any applicable law or regulation, a summons, search warrant, court or regulatory order, or other statutory requirement.

6. Transfers of your Personal Data outside of the European Union
For the purposes outlined above and particularly for technical support, from time to time, we might have to transfer your Personal Data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to a country that has not been confirmed by the European Commission to provide an adequate level of protection for Personal Data.
If and to the extent that we do so, we will ensure that appropriate measures are in place to comply with our obligations under applicable law governing such transfers, which may include entering into a data processing agreement in respect of the transfer which contains the ‘standard contractual clauses’ approved by the European Commission, or in respect of transfers to the United States of America, ensuring that the transfer is covered by the EU-US Privacy Shield framework (or any replacement framework). Further details of the measures that we have taken in this regard are available on request from GDPR@introspect.ie. This means that where we do not have the assurance of the destination for your data having been subject to a review by the European Commission, we will use other approved controls to ensure we can protect your data adequately and to ensure that those third parties who may process your personal data on our behalf meet the highest standards of privacy practices and comply with applicable data protection law.

7. How we secure your Personal Data
Where you communicate with us via our website, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us via the internet. Data transmission on the internet is not 100% secure. From the time data arrives within Introspect Counselling & Psychotherapy however, we commit to taking all reasonable steps (including appropriate technical and organisational measures) to protect your personal data.

8. Your Rights
You have the following rights, in certain circumstances and subject to certain restrictions, in relation to your personal data:
Right of access – The right to access your Personal Data;
Right to rectification – The right to request the rectification and/or erasure of your Personal Data in certain circumstances;
Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’) – The right to be forgotten in certain circumstances;
Right to restriction of processing – The right to restrict the use of your Personal Data in certain circumstances;
Right to object – The right to object to the processing of your Personal Data;
Right to data portability – The right to receive your Personal Data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to require us to transmit that data to another controller, in certain circumstances.
In addition to these rights, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, and the right to pursue a remedy through the Courts if we fail to meet the required standards of data protection.

9. How you can exercise your rights
To execute any of your rights listed above, please contact us at GDPR@introspect.ie

10. Changes to this Privacy Notice and our Policies
We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Notice at any time without prior consultation. Any changes to this Privacy Notice will be updated on our website with the date of update and a short note of changes made in this revision.

11. Questions and Complaints
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Notice, you can contact us sending an email to GDPR@introspect.ie

This Privacy Policy Page was last updated on the 24th November 2023. This is the first published version of our Privacy & Confidentiality Policy.