Counseling is strictly confidential. Without your permission, nothing will be disclosed to third parties. This also applies when a third party funds the sessions. Confidentiality can only be breached in extremely exceptional circumstances where the health and safety of you or others are at serious risk.
YOUR PRIVACY
For proper treatment, it is necessary for me, as your treating therapist, to create a client file. This is also a legal obligation under the WGBO (Medical Treatment Contracts Act). Your file contains notes about your health and information about the examinations and treatments that have been carried out.
Your file may also include information that is necessary for your treatment and that I have requested from another healthcare provider—such as your general practitioner—but only after receiving your explicit consent.
We do our best to safeguard your privacy. This means, among other things, that we:
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handle your personal and medical data with care,
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ensure that unauthorized persons do not have access to your information.
As your treating therapist, I am the only person who has access to the data in your file.
I have a legal duty of confidentiality (professional secrecy).
The data in your file may also be used for the following purposes:
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To inform other healthcare providers, for example when treatment has ended or when referring you to another professional. This only happens with your explicit consent.
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For stand-in coverage during my absence.
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For anonymized use during peer consultations.
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A small portion of the data in your file is used for financial administration, so that I—or my administrative assistant—can prepare an invoice.
If I wish to use your information for any other purpose, I will inform you first and explicitly request your permission.
The data in the client file is kept for 20 years, as required by the Medical Treatment Contracts Act. Financial data is stored for 7 years.
PRIVACY ON THE INVOICE
The invoice (“zorgnota”) you receive contains the information required by health insurers so that you can submit it for reimbursement. It includes:
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Your name, address, and place of residence
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Your date of birth
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Insurance policy number
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The date of treatment
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A brief description of the treatment, such as “psychosocial consultation”
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The cost of the consultation
YOUR RIGHTS
Under the GDPR (AVG), your rights are well protected. You have the right to:
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access,
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rectification,
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deletion of data,
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restriction of processing,
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data portability.
If desired, we will provide you access to the data we store about you. If this information is incorrect, you have the right to have it corrected.
If you believe we are retaining your data without justification, you generally have the right to request its deletion. However, we are limited here: under the WGBO, we are required to store your data for at least 20 years.
“Restriction of processing” means that we may not use your data if it is incorrect or if you have previously objected to its processing. This also applies if data has been stored unlawfully.
Finally, you have the right to data portability. This means that we must provide your data to you if, for example, you want to transfer to another counselor.