Strengths-Based Intervention Planning for Desistance from Sexual Offending
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Positive, strengths-based interventions are increasingly popular with clinicians seeking to help individuals who have committed sexual offenses avoid reoffending. Yet assessment tools designed to evaluate risk, identify treatment needs, and assess response to treatment remain focused on the negative: what has gone wrong (static risk factors) and what is going wrong (dynamic risk factors). In mid-2017, Gwenda Willis, David Thornton, Sharon Kelley, and Michiel de Vries Robbé embarked on a research program to develop a structured assessment of protective factors against sexual reoffending for use alongside commonly used risk assessment tools.
In this training, Gwen, David, and Sharon review the journey leading to the development of the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors against Sexual Offending (SAPROF-SO), Version 1, and why they believe best practices should include consideration of both risk factors and strengths-based, protective factors.
The training begins with a brief overview of desistance theory—the study of how people stop further offending—and the strengths-based Good Lives Model, and related assessment considerations. It describes the development of the SAPROF-SO and its subscales (Resilience, Adaptive Sexuality, and Prosocial Connections & Reward). Finally, the presenters illustrate how the SAPROF-SO can help inform therapy planning, release planning, and ongoing risk management, using an extended case example.
1) Identify key elements of desistance theory.
2) Analyze definitions of protective factors.
3) Describe a structured measure of protective factors (SAPROF-SO).
4) Explain how the SAPROF-SO can inform treatment and release planning decisions.
5) Explain the Good Lives Model.
Audience
This training is primarily for clinicians who work with individuals who have committed sexual offenses. This includes psychologists, social workers, and therapists who are involved in risk assessment and treatment planning for this population.
Content Level
Disclosure
Continuing Education Approval
American Psychological Association (APA)
Safer Society Foundation, Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Safer Society Foundation, Inc. maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Who's Presenting
Gwenda M. Willis, PhD, PGDipClinPsyc
Dr. Willis is an Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Registered Clinical Psychologist. Her research and clinical interests focus on strengths-based approaches to psychological assessment and therapy in forensic/correctional settings, trauma-informed care, and sexual abuse prevention. Dr. Willis provides training and consultation to clinicians internationally, including in the application of the contemporary Good Lives Model of rehabilitation. Dr. Willis has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and her research has been widely cited. She led the development and initial validation of the SAPROF-SO with co-authors Drs David Thornton, Sharon Kelley, and Michiel de Vries Robbé.
Sharon Kelley, PsyD
Dr. Kelley has been completing risk assessments in the field of sexual offending for the past 20 years. She is currently employed as a forensic psychologist with the Sand Ridge Evaluation Unit in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to this, she maintains a private practice completing evaluations and trainings, and she has volunteer positions on the ATSA Board of Directors and the ATSA journal’s editorial board. She is a licensed psychologist in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and California. Both with her practical work and research projects, she is interested in empirically-based risk assessments, best evaluation practices, and understanding evaluator decision-making.
David Thornton PhD
Dr. Thornton is a psychologist in private practice based in Wisconsin. He is licensed to practice as a psychologist in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the U.S., as well as in the U.K. He was a research director for Wisconsin’s program for sexually violent persons for three years and previously was the treatment director for that program for over a decade. He has published on evidence-based standards for effective correctional programs and on the importance of therapist style in the provision of treatment designed to reduce sexual recidivism risk. He has contributed to the development of static actuarial risk assessment instruments such as the Static-99/R, Static-2002/R, and Risk Matrix 2000 and to more psychological forms of assessment such as the assessment of long-term vulnerabilities and dynamic protective factors relevant to sexual offending. David Thornton has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles.