Privacy Policy

This is also published on our Public Website and Private Student Portal.

Karuna Institute is registered as Karuna Training Ltd, a registered company in England (Company no 14114483).

Our registered address is:  6 Charlotte Street, Bath, BA1 2NE and our Training Venue Address is:  Suite 8, Fenton Court, 1-3 Fenton Road, Bristol BS7 8ND. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office.

Karuna Institute is a psychotherapy training organisation and we use personal information in the delivery of this work. As a staff member or by enrolling on any of our training programmes, staff and students consent to Karuna Institute retaining any necessary personal data in line with this Policy and Procedures document. We may need to keep some personal information indefinitely to make sure we are able to fulfil our role and obligations as a training and accrediting organisation.

This document describes how Karuna Institute uses any information that we hold and how we retain and safeguard this personal data.

Karuna Institute may change this policy from time to time in line with legislation and we advise that you check this page from time to time to be aware of any changes. This policy is effective from 1st September 2022

By continuing to use this website you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy and agreeing to our use of cookies described below.

Any changes to this policy will be on this page and if relevant will be notified you by email.

For the purpose of Data Protection Act 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation, the Directors of Karuna Institute are the data controllers of this address:

This notice applies to all information collected or submitted on the publicly accessible parts of karunainstitute.co.uk website.

Our Commitment to Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.

The Information We Collect

Like most websites our website uses Google Analytics (GA). This data is used to look at the number of people using the site and how they find it and how they journey through the website. It also records your IP address which can personally identify you. Google do not give us access to this.

The comments on our Blog section are open to everyone, and as such, any data you post in discussions or elsewhere can be seen by anyone, and may be quoted, copied or used elsewhere.  It is your responsibility not to post data that you want to keep private.

Student Portal

Personal information is collected from you when you apply or register for one of our courses and this is kept on our private student database area.

The information collected will depend on the nature of the course and may include

  • Name
  • Postal Address
  • Email address
  • Phone numbers
  • Profession and professional qualifications.
  • A password of your choice that is encrypted

For applications to our foundation and graduate trainings, additional information will be collected that may include

  • Photograph
  • Curriculum Vitae and personal history
  • References from third parties
  • Copy of qualifications and membership certificates

An email address is required for this site to work correctly. Again, we respect your privacy and your email address will not be shared beyond those running the courses or sold to any third party. We may send you follow-up emails after the course to ask for your evaluation and inform you of future training options, new course dates or other resources. You will always be able to opt out using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the email.

All payments are recorded in our accounting package QuickBooks.  If and where we offer online payments for our courses, we do not collect credit/debit card details – these are recorded for the purposes of securing a transaction by a card payment processor.  The only information we retain about your card payment is a transaction id and the last 4 digits of your card number as provided to us by our payment processor.

The Way We Use Information

We use the information you provide about yourself when enrolling on to one of our courses or events, only to manage that event. We may share your contact details with other participants of the course or event you are attending to facilitate on-going communication and connection between the participant group members.  Details are also shared with your Tutor Teams.

We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to manage the courses and events.

We use your email addresses to answer emails we receive from you and to manage the running and delivery of the event that you are enrolled on. Your email address will be included in our general mailing database through which we keep our current students, alumni and enquirers, informed of forthcoming events. Your email address is not shared with outside parties.

You can register with our website if you would like to receive our newsletter and announcements of new courses and events.

Finally, we never use or share personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.

Your information is used in the running of our training courses on this site and so that Karuna Institute can support your progress as a student and contact you. By accessing our site you permit Karuna Institute and relevant Certified Partners to send you such information.

Our Commitment to Data Security

To prevent unauthorised access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. For that reason, we never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are aged 16 or under, and no part of our website is structured to attract anyone aged 16 or under.

How You Can Access or Correct Your Information

If you have attended or are attending our professional training courses run since June 2022, then you will have been given access to the Student Portal. By logging on, you can manage and correct the personal data we hold.

Additional data collected online and relating to training applications made after January 2022 can also be viewed via the Student Portal.

If you feel that any information that we hold about you is inaccurate then you are able to ask us to update your information. If you want us to delete your information then please do so in writing and we will endeavour to do so unless we need to keep information for legal or internal business purposes such as records for accounting or for graduation and accreditation or in order to liaise with UKCP.

If you have not attended our professional training, you can be sent details of the information we hold about you by contacting admin@karunainstitute.co.uk. To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

How is information used?

This information is used in the running of our training courses on this site and so that Karuna Institute can support your progress as a student and contact you. By accessing our site you permit Karuna Institute and relevant Certified Partners to send you such information.

Personal data

‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable person (‘data subject’) (an identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

Data types and sources

  • Data is provided directly by students and graduates (for example: applications, practitioner information,
  • UKCP membership information, practitioner information, term papers, portfolios)
  • Data is provided directly by staff (for example: CVs)
  • Data is generated by the faculty and marking team (for example: Tutor Assessments, Essay feedback, monitoring, meeting notes)
  • Data is generated by the administration (for example: financial records and agreements, intentions, preferences)
  • Data is generated by UKCP via registrant lists
  • Website
  • QuickBooks – For our accounting purposes
  • Zoom – for our telephone and video meeting services.

Storing and retention of data

How long is my data stored?
Your personal data is stored as long as your account is active on this site. The following outlines in more detail the areas and ways we retain data:

  • Following Accreditation we will keep your name, email and contact details indefinitely unless you tell us you no longer want to receive correspondence from us.
  • The following documentation will be kept (for a period of at least seven to ten years post your Accreditation)
    • Your Student Database on our password protected server
    • Electronic Files
    • Student Portal (accounts are kept for current students, once a student graduates or withdraws, their account is suspended). Records are kept for seven years following a student accrediting or leaving the training.
    • Student generated files (for example: MHFP portfolios, Essays, Dissertations, Self/Peer Assessments, training applications, Application for Graduation/Accreditation Student Contracts etc)
    • Faculty generated files (for example: Tutor Assessments, reports, feedback)
    • Administration generated files (for example: financial records and agreements, schedules)
  • The following data is usually kept for a shorter period of time
    • Emails (on our email hosting site)
    • General emails from or to students and staff
    • Other emails from or to students and staff (for example: updates to personal information, agreements)
    • Voicemail messages on our phone system.

Who we share data with:

We work with several partner organisations:

  • Karuna Dartmoor – there may be some sharing of information about students databases / contracts / clinical contracts between Karuna Dartmoor and Karuna Institute.
  • Association of Core Process Psychotherapist (ACPP), contact information and proof of graduation.
  • UKCP: membership and accreditation information, staff CVs and contact information
  • We use external software packages such as Quickbooks and your data will be related to Karuna Institute’s secure account for our accounting purposes.
  • If you telephone our office and leave a voicemail this is kept on our closed Zoom Phone system. Voicemails will be kept until we have responded to and resolved your call query. For the Zoom Phone System GDPR Policy statement see: https://explore.zoom.us/en/gdpr/
  • We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

Website Privacy Statement

Cookies

This site does use cookies in order to distinguish you from other users. You are able to disable cookies which will prevent your visit being tracked. Some cookies are essential for the website to work properly. We would advise you to review and if necessary disable cookies on your internet browser regularly. Please see http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/ to provide you with information about cookies and http://www.aboutcookies.org/ for advice about deleting and managing cookies.

Blog posts

If you were to comment on a blog then your name and email address will be saved to the website’s database, with your IP address. This is not passed on to a 3rd party. Your comment may remain on the website until we remove the comment or the blog post. Please email admin@karunainstitute.co.uk if you wish for the comment to be removed, using the email that you commented with.

If you are under 16 then you must obtain parental consent before posting a comment.

Please do not leave personally identifiable information on the comment field of any blog post.

How we store information

If you contact us via the ‘Contact’ form, no data will be stored by the website or passed to any third party. All data will be transferred and stored within the European Economic Area in line with GDPR requirements.

How To Contact Us

Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please send us an email at admin@karunainstitute.co.uk