Privacy Policy
Hadden Psychology is committed to protecting your privacy and keeping your personal information safe. This Privacy Notice explains how I collect, use, store and protect your personal information when you contact Hadden Psychology or receive psychological services from me.
Hadden Psychology provides psychological assessment and therapy services online. I only collect and use personal information where there is a lawful basis for doing so and where it is necessary for providing psychological services and running my practice.
1. Who I am
Hadden Psychology is a private psychology practice operated by Dr Jennifer Hadden, a Clinical Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), registration number PYL29013.
For the purposes of UK data protection law, I am the data controller of the personal information I hold about you.
If you have any questions about how your information is used, or wish to exercise your data protection rights, you can contact me at:
Hadden Psychology
Summit House
4–5 Mitchell Street
Edinburgh
EH6 7BD
Email: drjenniferhadden@gmail.com
Hadden Psychology is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller.
2. What personal information I collect
Depending on the service you receive and how you interact with Hadden Psychology, I may collect:
Contact and identification information
Your name
Email address
Telephone number, where provided
Date of birth, where necessary
Information needed to arrange and manage appointments
Your preferred method of contact
Information relevant to psychological services
As part of providing psychological assessment and therapy, I may collect information about your:
Mental health and psychological wellbeing
Physical health where relevant to your psychological care
Presenting difficulties and symptoms
Personal, social and developmental history
Family and relationship circumstances where relevant
Previous or current psychological or medical treatment
Medication where relevant
Risk and safeguarding concerns where relevant
Treatment goals, progress and outcomes
This information may include special category data, particularly information concerning your physical or mental health.
I only collect information that is relevant and necessary for providing appropriate psychological services and managing your care.
Administrative and payment information
Where applicable, I may also collect:
Billing and payment information
Information required to process invoices
Information relating to private medical insurance or third-party funding
Information provided by or shared with your insurer in connection with arranging or authorising psychological services
Correspondence with insurers or other organisations involved in arranging or funding your care
I do not routinely store full payment card details.
3. How I collect your information
I may collect personal information:
Directly from you when you contact Hadden Psychology
Through the Contact Me form on my website
During an initial enquiry or assessment
During psychological therapy
Through forms or questionnaires that you complete
Through email or telephone correspondence, where you provide a telephone number
When arranging or paying for appointments
From your GP, other healthcare professionals or relevant professionals where you have asked me to liaise with them or where this is otherwise permitted by law
From your health insurer or another organisation arranging or funding your psychological care
From another professional involved in your care where this is necessary and lawful
Information submitted through the website contact form is sent to my practice email address.
Where information is obtained from someone other than you, I will normally explain this to you where appropriate.
4. How I use your personal information
I use your personal information to:
Respond to enquiries submitted through the website, email or other means
Arrange and manage appointments
Carry out psychological assessment
Provide psychological therapy
Maintain accurate clinical records
Monitor and review your progress and treatment
Communicate with you about your care
Communicate with other professionals involved in your care where appropriate
Communicate with your health insurer or other organisation funding or authorising your care where applicable
Manage payments, invoices and other administrative matters
Meet my professional, legal and regulatory responsibilities
Maintain appropriate records and ensure the quality and safety of my services
Respond to complaints or concerns
Establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary
Protect the safety and wellbeing of clients or other people where this is necessary
5. Our lawful bases for using your information
UK data protection law requires me to have a lawful basis for collecting and using personal information.
Depending on the circumstances, I may rely on the following lawful bases:
Contract
I may process your personal information where this is necessary to provide the psychological services you have requested or to take steps at your request before entering into an agreement to provide services.
Legal obligation
I may process information where this is necessary for me to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
Legitimate interests
I may process personal information where this is necessary for my legitimate interests in running and administering my practice, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
Vital interests
In exceptional circumstances, I may process information where this is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person.
Special category data
Information about your physical or mental health is special category data and requires an additional legal condition for processing.
I process health information where this is necessary for the provision and management of health or social care or treatment, subject to the requirements of UK data protection law.
Where necessary, I may also rely on other conditions permitted by law, for example where processing is necessary to protect someone’s vital interests or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
6. Confidentiality
Psychological services are confidential.
I will normally only share information about you with other people or organisations where:
You have given appropriate permission;
Sharing is necessary to provide or coordinate your care and is permitted by law;
I am legally required to share the information; or
There is a serious concern about your safety or the safety of another person and sharing information is necessary and proportionate to protect someone from serious harm.
Where possible, I will discuss any proposed disclosure with you beforehand.
There may be circumstances in which I cannot tell you before information is shared, for example where doing so would increase the risk of serious harm or where the law prevents me from doing so.
7. Who I may share your information with
Depending on your circumstances, I may share relevant information with:
Your GP or other healthcare professionals involved in your care
Other professionals involved in your psychological care, where appropriate
Your health insurer where they are funding or authorising your treatment
Organisations involved in arranging or administering your care
Professional indemnity insurers or legal advisers where necessary
Regulatory or statutory bodies where I am legally required to do so
Service providers who provide IT, email, video-conferencing, storage or other services that I use to operate my practice
When working with health insurers, I will only provide information that is relevant and necessary for the purposes of arranging, authorising, funding or reviewing your psychological care.
I will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
8. Technology and service providers
Hadden Psychology operates online and uses technology services to provide and manage the practice.
I use Gmail for practice email correspondence.
Email may contain personal information where this is necessary for communication about your care or the administration of your appointments. I take appropriate steps to secure my email account and devices.
Website contact form
The Hadden Psychology website includes a Contact Me form. Information submitted through this form is sent to my practice email address and may include your name, email address, telephone number if provided, and any information you choose to include in your message.
Please avoid including detailed or sensitive information about your mental or physical health in the initial website contact form. The form is intended primarily for making an enquiry about psychological services.
Video consultations
I use Zoom to provide online psychological consultations.
Zoom processes personal information in connection with providing the video consultation service. I use appropriate security settings and do not routinely record psychological therapy sessions.
Storage of clinical information
Clinical records and other relevant information are stored electronically using Microsoft OneDrive and are protected by password and appropriate account security measures.
I take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.
Google, Zoom and Microsoft may process information in countries outside the UK. Where this involves a restricted international transfer under UK data protection law, appropriate safeguards will be used in accordance with the applicable requirements.
9. Security
I take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information.
These include:
Password-protected accounts and devices
Two-step verification where available
Appropriate access controls
Secure electronic storage
Keeping software and systems appropriately updated
Using reputable professional technology providers
Limiting access to personal information to what is necessary
I do not routinely record psychological therapy sessions.
If a session were ever to be recorded, I would discuss this with you beforehand and explain how the recording would be used, stored and deleted.
10. How long I keep your information
I retain adult clinical records for 7 years following the end of psychological services.
For clients under 18, clinical records will generally be retained until the client’s 25th birthday.
Clinical records may include assessment information, clinical notes, correspondence, reports, risk assessments, outcome measures and other information relevant to your psychological care.
Some information may need to be retained for longer where there is a specific legal, professional, insurance or other legitimate reason to do so.
Information relating to enquiries where no psychological services are provided will normally be retained for no longer than necessary and will generally be deleted within 12 months of the last contact.
Financial and accounting records are retained for the period required by applicable financial and tax requirements.
When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or destroyed.
11. Your data protection rights
Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information.
Depending on the circumstances, these include the right to:
Ask for a copy of the personal information I hold about you
Ask me to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
Ask me to restrict how I use your information in certain circumstances
Object to certain types of processing
Ask for your information to be transferred to another organisation in certain circumstances
Ask for information to be deleted in certain circumstances
Some of these rights are subject to exceptions under data protection law. For example, I may not always be able to delete clinical information where I have a legal or professional obligation to retain it.
Where I rely on your consent as the lawful basis for processing particular information, you have the right to withdraw that consent. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdrew it.
If you wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact me using the details above.
I will normally respond to a valid request without undue delay and, in any event, within one month, subject to any lawful extension or exemption.
12. Complaints about how I use your information
If you have concerns about how I have handled your personal information, please contact me in the first instance so that I can try to resolve your concerns.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe that your personal information has not been handled appropriately.
Further information about making a complaint is available from the ICO website.
13. Changes to this Privacy Notice
I may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in my practice, the services I provide or data protection requirements.
The most recent version will always be available on the Hadden Psychology website.
Last updated: September 2026