Strengths-based services for children, adolescents, families, and adults have become far more widely used in recent years. While much of this practice has been in response to trends in research, many professionals simply prefer to take a more positive, strengths-focused approach, particularly when working with adolescents who have caused sexual harm.

Dr. Kevin Powell has been a leading light in strengths-based work throughout his career, with an extensive record of publications and presentations on the subject. In this training, Dr. Powell describes a challenging case involving an adolescent mandated to receive sexual offense-specific treatment. He invites participants to join him in exploring the broad range of strengths-based interventions he utilized in this case, including a thorough case conceptualization, the strategies he used to enhance the client’s openness and honesty during the treatment process, and the specific challenges that occurred during the process. He ends the discussion with a summary of a 20-year follow-up of this case.

As with many areas of forensic psychology and the law, living with children (LWC) evaluations pose unique challenges. Whatever their personal viewpoints regarding policy and legislation, evaluators must conform their work product to meet the requirements of the legal systems in which they operate. In conducting these assessments, evaluators must balance best practices in sexual offense risk assessments and modern research on this population with answering the specific questions required by the legal system.

Typically, a forensic evaluator comments on the risk of sexual re-offense by an individual who committed a sexual offense in broad, hypothetical contexts. In LWC evaluations, however, the evaluator must consider the examinee’s risk to a specific child. The specificity of the potential victim adds unique elements, such as potential vulnerabilities for victimization and the non-offending caregiver’s attributes and abilities.

In this training, Dr. Zachary Yeoman examines numerous aspects of LWC evaluations. He provides an overview of the legal contexts in which evaluators operate, helping them navigate areas where psychological science and the law may conflict.