DrMickDarby.com is a website of Progress Psychology Limited (PPL), a company registered with Companies House in the UK (Company No. 12040288) whose registered address is 161 Westbourne Street, Hove, BN3 5FB, United Kingdom. Dr Michael (Mick) Darby is a Director of Progress Psychology Limited. He is registered by the Health Care Professions Council as a regulated Practitioner Psychologist (Registration No. PYL37161). He is also registered in the UK as a Chartered Psychologist, with the British Psychological Society (BPS No. PLY37161). He works under the standards of conduct, performance and ethics of the HCPC and within the BPS code of ethics and conduct.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Privacy Policy
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European union that comes into effect from 25 May 2018. This document explains how Progress Psychology Limited uses any personal information they collect about you, as a past, present or future service user (i.e. client or patient) or when using this website.
Data Control
Dr Michael (Mick) Darby is the data controller for Progress Psychology Limited.
Business associates (including psychologists and other consultants) who might take on referrals and co-working with Progress Psychology Limited may be additional data controllers for the clients they work with.
Your rights
Progress Psychology Limited is committed to protecting your rights to privacy. They include:
- Right to be informed about what we do with your personal data
- Right to have a copy of all the personal information we process about you
- Right to rectification of any inaccurate data we process, and to add to the information we hold about you if it is incomplete
- Right to be forgotten and your personal data destroyed
- Right to restrict the processing of your personal data
- Right to object to the processing we carry out based on our legitimate interest
Reasons for collecting and processing information about you
Progress Psychology Limited may collect information about you because you are a client of the business. Dr Michael (Mick) Darby processes the data because it is in his legitimate interests as practitioner psychologist to do so. As a psychologist, he needs to see and analyse documents containing this information to provide his expert advice, to carry out an assessment or to deliver psychological interventions.
The lawful reason for processing “special category data” is that it is necessary for the purposes of the provision of health or social care or treatment. Another lawful reason for processing your data may be Legal Obligation. If Progress Psychology Limited is processing “special category data” about you, this a lawful reason to do so. This is likely to apply in regards to a litigation claim.
What type of personal data is collected and processed
Progress psychology Limited collects information about you that may include personal or sensitive information, such as:
– Personal information may include your name or given name, family name or surname, address, telephone numbers, date of birth, gender (or preferred identity), age, relationships and children, occupation, telephone/SMS number, email address, video conference ID (if online therapy), GP contact details, other referrer contact details, nominated emergency contact details.
– Sensitive information may include medical conditions (if relevant), prescribed medication, psychological history and current difficulties, financial information, including bank account details (if you are a private self-funding patient or you need to pay excess), insurance company details including membership details and information provided by other medical professionals and referrers.
– Sensitive personal data: signed client agreement, session records (notes, letters, reports and/or outcome measures). To make sure that you are assessed and/or treated safely and appropriately, Progress Psychology Limited records your personal information, as well as any contacts you have such as appointments and the results of assessments and letters relating to your care/report.
Progress Psychology Limited may also process personal data pursuant to legitimate interests involved in running a business such as invoices and receipts, accounts, VAT and tax returns.
Web access collection of information
When you complete an online contact form Progress Psychology Limited will collect information about you and your internet protocol (IP) address. This is automatically supplied by the website software used to offer the form. Progress Psychology Limited always tries to minimise the amount of personal information that is required to provide a specific service or feature.
How your personal information is stored
Progress Psychology Limited takes your privacy seriously and is committed to taking all reasonable steps to protect any individual identifying information that you provide to the business. Once Progress Psychology Limited receives your data, the best efforts are made to ensure it is held securely on our systems. All personal information provided is stored in compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
How long your personal information is stored for
Progress Psychology Limited does not keep your data for longer than is necessary. Basic contact information and the sensitive personal data defined above is stored for a period of 7 years after the completion of work. After this time, this data is deleted at the end of each calendar year. Administrative data is retained for up to six years as necessary, in the unlikely event there are queries from HMRC and the VAT commissioner. Where it is not necessary to retain the data for six years, it is destroyed as soon as possible.
What we do with your personal information
Progress Psychology Limited takes your privacy seriously. We will only use your personal information to provide the services you have requested from us. If you do not provide the personal information requested, then we may be unable to provide a psychological service to you.
How your personal information is used
Progress Psychology Limited uses the information we collect to provide our services to you, process payment for such services and send you information.
What we will NOT do with your personal information
Progress Psychology Limited holds information about clients and the services they receive in confidence. We will not share your personal information with third-parties for marketing purposes. We will not share your personal information for any other reason, unless we have discussed this with you in advance and received your permission to do so. In some circumstances it may be necessary to share information and liaise with other parties, as outlined below:
- If you are referred by your health insurance provider, or otherwise claiming through a health insurance policy to fund therapy, then Progress Psychology Limited will share appointment schedules with that organisation for the purposes of billing. Progress Psychology Limited may also share information with that organisation to provide treatment updates.
- In cases where treatment has been instructed by a solicitor or a medical facility, relevant clinical information from therapy records will be shared with legal services as required and with your written consent.
Who we might have to share personal information with
In exceptional circumstances, Progress Psychology Limited might need to share personal information with relevant authorities, for example:
- When there is need-to-know information for another health provider, such as your GP.
- When disclosure is determined by authorities to be in the public interest, for example to prevent a miscarriage of justice or where there is a legal duty, for example a Court Order.
- When the information concerns risk of harm to the client, or risk of harm to another person. Such a disclosure will be discussed with you unless we assess that to do so could increase the level of risk to you or to someone else.
How we ensure the security of personal information
Personal information is minimised in phone and email communication. Email applications used by Progress Psychology Limited use private settings, which encrypt email traffic so that it cannot be read at any point between our computing devices and our mail server.
Personal information is also stored on electronic files in computers owned by Progress Psychology Limited, which are protected with current security software.
Your right to access the personal information we hold about you
- You have a right to access the information we hold about you.
- This will usually shared this with you within 30 days of receiving a request.
- There may be an admin fee for supplying the information to you.
- Further evidence from you to check your identity might be requested.
- A copy of your personal information will usually be sent to you in a permanent form (that is, a printed copy).
- You have a right to get your personal information corrected if it is inaccurate.
- You can complain to a regulator.
- If you think that Progress Psychology Limited has not complied with data protection laws, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to refuse a request to delete a client’s personal information where this is a psychological record, as these are retained for a period of 7 years in accordance with the guidelines and requirements for record keeping by The British Psychological Society (BPS; 2000) and The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC; 2017).
More information can be found at https://ico.org.uk
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Fees & Payments
Standard Insurance and Self-funding Fees
- Standard fees are £180 (pounds sterling) per 50-minute session
- Standard fees apply to insurance, self-funding, ad-hoc and one-off client sessions
- No hidden fees – all fees will be agreed in advance between the psychologist and the client
- No additional costs will ever be applied – unless agreed in advance
- All fees quoted in emails will supersede and take precedence over the standard fees
All self-funding fees will be proposed, agreed and communicated in advance in writing or by email from the psychologist to the client and it is the client’s responsibility to ensure this has occurred. Where fees have not been agreed in advance in writing or by email, Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to charge any outstanding fees at up to the standard rate (see below). Where alternative fees have been agreed in advance, Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to charge any outstanding fees at up to the agreed rate per 50-minute session.
Exceptions to the standard fees
- Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to charge outside the standard fees
- Reduced fees may be available when some packages are paid in full in advance*
- A small number of reduced fee packages may be available in cases of financial hardship*
- Some premium services may be charged at a higher rate to cover additional costs**
- Some international transactions may incur small transaction fees to cover bank charges***
* Reduced fees are sometimes available, for example when some packages or tranches of sessions are paid in full in advance. A very limited number of financial hardship packages may also be available upon request and clients should enquire in advance. In all cases the fees will be agreed and communicated in advance in writing by email from the psychologist to the client, and agreed by the client before sessions commence (note, if this has not been done, Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to charge at up to the standard fee).
**Additional fees may be required to cover substantive additional costs to the psychologist incurred by additional work between sessions. Typically, these fees involve aspects such as substantive risk, professional record-keeping, professional correspondence, liaison with third parties, authorities and other stakeholders, professional supervision, homework review, psychological assessments or report-writing (e.g. psychological assessment & formulation packages, executive coaching programmes, addiction treatment services and behavioural couples work may have higher than standard fees). In all cases the fees will be agreed and communicated in advance in writing by email from the psychologist to the client, and agreed by the client before sessions commence. If this has not been done, Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to charge at up to the standard fee.
***All above prices are quoted in UK Pounds Sterling. Progress Psychology has bank accounts in the USA, Australia and the European Union to facilitate payments in US dollar, Australian dollar and Euro, respectively. This arrangement also helps to keep client fees down when working with clients from these territories. In these cases, the price may be agreed and quoted in the currency local to the client in question. In all cases, including when payment is being made from a foreign country or in another currency, the fees and transaction fees will be agreed and communicated in advance and in writing by email from the psychologist to the client, and agreed by the client before sessions commence, prior to payment. If this has not been done, Progress Psychology Limited reserves the right to charge up to the standard fee in pounds sterling, plus an additional 5% transaction fee.
Additional information
Psychological Flexibility Training (for groups, teams and organisations)
Mick has many years of experience in consulting to a wide range of multinational organisations and enterprises operating across sectors including business services, technology, creative industries, industrial & manufacturing, finance and the third sector. Psychological Flexibility Training gives business leaders and HR teams the evidence-based skills they need to improve their delivery, performance and effectiveness. This approach allows professionals to work more effectively with team members experiencing performance, psychological or behavioural issues (e.g. disengagement, lack of motivation, burnout, anxiety or anger issues). Mentors, coaches and mental health support teams will develop core behavioural competencies that can supercharge their capacity to work under stressful conditions. Psychological Flexibility Training can improve anyone’s ability to hold anyone else’s emotional pain while navigating them towards meaningful outcomes. For more details or to arrange a complimentary initial consultation please use the contact form below.
Psychological Therapy for Private Insurance Clients
Mick works discreetly, confidentially and professionally with self-funding clients. For counselling psychology and addictions work, it is possible that your insurer may fund all or part of your treatment. He works with many UK and international private insurance clients, including as a BUPA and BUPA Global Psychologist, Cigna Psychologist, WPA Psychologist and Helix Psychologist.
Psychological Approach: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Mick uses only tried and tested processes of therapy, coaching and behaviour change, focusing on building mental resilience through Psychological Flexibility (or Emotional Agility), using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an evidence-based approach that enhances both wellbeing and performance. Mick uses additional evidence-based approaches and modalities including: Addictions Counselling; Acceptance and Commitment Coaching (ACC); Behavioural Couples Therapy (BCT); Career Coaching; Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT); Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT); Executive & Performance Coaching; Integrative Counselling Psychology; Mindfulness and Acceptance Coaching (MAC); Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP); Mindfulness- integrated CBT (MiCBT/ MBCT); Motivational Interviewing (MI); Positive Psychology (PP).
For more details or to arrange a complimentary initial consultation please contact me at: drmickdarby@gmail.com
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Psychological Counselling and Coaching services | Online addictions treatment and Behavioural Couples Therapy for addictions | Privacy Policy, Fees and Payments