At Untangled Psychology we prioritise respecting and commit to protecting your privacy. Through the nature of our services, we will collect, use and disclose your personal information in a responsible way and only to the extent necessary.
The below document outlines our policies and procedures relating to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. It also offers information about how you can access your records and request correction of recorded personal information, if need be.
The brand
Heini Kumpulainen and Kristine Asferg are the co-founders and co-owners of Untangled Psychology, a private psychological practice that delivers psychological services to adults. The delivery of psychological services includes tasks such as service planning, maintenance of records, monitoring, billing, and collecting unpaid accounts. There are no additional staff members at this time.
Personal information
Personal information is any information that relates to an identifiable individual, for example a person’s personal characteristics, health information, activities and beliefs/views. Personal information, specifically relating to health, is protected by the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA).
Collection of personal information
The collection of your personal information is used to be able to provide you with quality, tailored psychological services. Additionally, we collect this information in order to contact you or your emergency contact (in case of emergencies). None of the data we collect will be shared with third parties, or used for research, unless we specifically obtain your informed consent. You have no obligation to give informed consent and not doing so, will not impact the services you receive.
Personal health information will be obtained directly from you, except in a few conditions. Namely, when you have provided explicit consent for us to collect this information from others (e.g. a spouse or previous mental health professional) or when the law requires us to collect information without your consent (such as in emergency situations, where collecting such information is to prevent potential harm).
The website
The website www.untangledpsychology.com does not have any tracking, marketing or other types of cookies that collect information about you. The information you fill in when registering on our website is used for the purpose for which you gave it to us (e.g. to contact you and ensure you receive the appropriate service).
Your file
The law requires psychologists to create a file that keeps the necessary data needed to provide you with quality, appropriate care. This information may include (but is not limited to) session notes, results of any assessments, billing information and contact records. This file is the physical property of the practice and is to be kept by the practice for fifteen years by law. We need to retain your personal health information to ensure we can answer any questions you have about the services provided, and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies.
These files are always locked away in restricted areas, or password protected on computers in order to safely store your information.
Your rights
Although the aforementioned file is the property of the practice, as a client, you have the right to ask for a copy of the information included in your file regardless of which form it exists (with a few exceptions). In this practice, both written and electronic records are kept. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for record copying.
If the record contains personal health information about another individual, this must be removed before you gain access to your copy.
If you find factual inaccuracies in the file, you can request to change or supplement this information. If you disagree with the information in your file, you can add your own statement to the file. You also have the right to request (limited) parts of your file to be destroyed. We reserve the right to keep these parts if we believe that the interests of others will be harmed as a result (i.e. spouse or children).
Confidentiality
We understand that during treatment private and sensitive information is often shared. As psychologists, we have a shared duty of confidentiality and as such, all of our services are strictly confidential. All of the information that you share with us will remain between us, unless:
- You have given us consent to share certain information. As a rule, informed consent will be obtained in written form with a few exceptions. An example of such, is obtaining verbal consent due to time-sensitive circumstances followed-up by written consent at a better suited time.
- We are ordered to break confidentiality by the court of law
- That the confidentiality of this information cannot be maintained in order to prevent harm.
In these situations we will normally first try to speak with you before breaching confidentiality.
Changes to the privacy statement
This privacy statement is subject to change. Any future changes will state the date that it was changed. As such, we recommend you regularly consult this privacy statement.
More information
These privacy policies and procedures have been developed in accordance with professional regulations and ethical standards.
Do you have any questions or concerns? We, Heini Kumpulainen and Kristine Asferg, will speak with you directly to answer any questions you may have regarding this Privacy Policy and to provide you with any further information about privacy practices or limits of confidentiality that are specific to your situation. If you have a concern about our privacy policies and procedures or have a complaint about how your privacy has been handled, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@untangledpsychology.com.