A Message About the 2nd Edition from Authors, David Prescott and Dawn Pflugradt

In the years since Safer Society published the first edition, we have learned a lot about how clients and clinicians alike use workbooks. To better meet their needs, we worked closely with Safer Society Press to revise—and expand the scope of—Becoming the Man I Want to Be.

What’s New?

In the second edition, we have added a new focus on disclosure of past behaviors and identification of risk factors. We have also expanded key aspects of treatment that were less developed in the first edition, including understanding the value of counseling, the role of clients’ early adversity, and the importance of self-care.

To be more specific, the second edition is 62 pages longer than the first edition. Here is a rundown of the new material:

• A 2-page introduction to the book (Welcome!) in the first edition has been converted to a 12-page introductory chapter (Chapter 1 Welcome!). The chapter includes:
  • An expanded discussion of the purpose of counseling and how it will help you.
  • A new section on coping with stress and self-care

• Three entirely new chapters:
  • Ch 4. The Story of My Behavior
    • In this new chapter, we explain to clients that some understanding of their past experiences and behaviors can help them move beyond harmful behaviors and develop a lifestyle in which harmful behaviors are undesirable and unnecessary. This chapter seeks to make talking about their personal history easier, and safer, for clients to accomplish.
  • Ch. 5 Risk Factors
    • In this new chapter, we ask questions that elicit information about the client’s risks of harming others (as well as harming themselves). We also ask them to consider which of their risk factors for harming others have been the primary “drivers” of their harmful behaviors.
  • Ch. 6 Adversity in My Life: Abuse and Other Traumatic Experiences
    • Having examined the client’s history of harmful behavior, we now ask them to consider any adversity they may have experienced in their younger years, including abuse and other forms of trauma. Understanding the effects of adversity on their lives will help them in their efforts to make positive changes and to form relationships with the people who can help them change.

In the second edition, we continue to offer a separate chapter on each of the eight good life goals, but we have added two new features to each of those chapters:

• A new full-page section in which clients are asked to rate, on a scale of 0 to 10, how important that goal is to them, why they gave it that rating, and how confident they are that they will achieve that goal.
• For clients who are currently living under supervision or in a supervised setting, we have provided a separate space to answer the question, How Am I Trying to Achieve this Goal Now?

The final chapter of the book, Building My Good Life Plan, has been expanded. As in the first edition, we encourage clients to work on all eight goals, explaining that they must work to achieve all the goals if they are to truly have a “good life.” Nevertheless, we know that clients will put a little more time and effort into achieving the goals that are the most important to them, so we made two changes to help with that:

• We’ve given clients a way to choose their three “top goals;” then indicate the goals that are connected to their top goals—that is, those goals that must be achieved in order to achieve their top goals.
• We’ve provided more space for each goal and have printed the goals on eight yellow perforated sheets so that clients can remove them from the workbook and sort them in order of importance.

To sum up, our aim was to give Becoming the Man I Want to Be, Second Edition, a more comprehensive, and more structured, approach to treatment. Newer practitioners may benefit from the improved structure, while more seasoned practitioners can use the additions as tools for clinical dialogue.