The Adam Walsh Act (AWA) prohibits a US citizen petitioner who has been convicted of a specified offense against a minor from having an immigrant visa approved on behalf of a relative. However, the statute provides a “limited exception” if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines the petitioner poses no risk to the beneficiary. This limited exception determination is made after an assessment of the petitioner, usually by a psychologist specialized in treating and assessing individuals who have sexually offended.

Assessments for determining risk under the AWA are intricate, involving evaluators in complex clinical and ethical dilemmas uncommon in typical sexual offender evaluations. During this training, psychologist Dr. Thompson and immigration attorney Mr. Lolly discuss the intricacies of these assessments—what works and what doesn’t—arriving at recommendations from both legal and clinical perspectives.

Clarification involves honesty about abusive behaviors, taking responsibility for them, and building a safer future.

Professionals have long faced the challenge of helping families in the wake of sexual abuse. Practitioners must consider the complex needs of multiple people, including those who have harmed others and been harmed directly and indirectly within the family. Primary considerations include assisting families in building safety plans, ensuring the rights and welfare of those harmed are met, preventing re-traumatization, and having the sibling who has abused learn accountability.

This training explores how stigma, social norms, moral panic, and sexual attraction act as barriers to those seeking help in preventing themselves from committing their first offense. Dr. Spooner provides a comprehensive understanding of minor-attracted people, as well as the inaccurate narratives about MAPs that result in strained relationships between providers and clients. Lastly, participants are encouraged to identify and reflect on their personal biases, explore effective approaches to meeting the needs of MAPs, and consider alternative approaches to current practices.

Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents (TGCTA) is a four-module program designed to address trauma and grief in adolescents. It can be implemented in various settings, such as community mental health facilities, schools, clinics, and other service settings. This training covers the four modules of TGCTA, which address foundational knowledge and skills to enhance posttraumatic emotional, cognitive, and behavioral regulation, processing of trauma experiences, processing of grief/loss experiences, and the resumption of adaptive developmental progression and future orientation.

Presenter Erica Ogletree highlights the features of TGCTA that support its initial implementation and long-term sustainability. This includes detailed instructions with suggested scripts for each session, which is especially useful when there is clinician turnover. Additionally, the grief component in TGCTA aligns fully with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association , 2013), and it is the only contemporary adolescent treatment that does so. Resistant youths in some settings appear more willing to engage fully with the grief than with the trauma component, thus opening other doors to recovery.

During this training David Prescott and Seth Wescott explore the realities of pornography use by adolescents, and discuss the clinical implications. They describe the proliferation of explicit content and how, in many cases, how it has become more concerning.

The presenters offer strategies and ideas for working with young people who struggle with pornography exposure to parents and caregivers, clinical practitioners, school counselors, and other professionals. By fostering a deeper understanding of the role of pornography in the lives of adolescents, this training empowers attendees to navigate this challenging area and better support their clients.

Professionals working with clients who have committed sexual offenses often face significant challenges in understanding and accepting their clients’ sexual preferences. While their primary goal is to prevent future sexual abuse, professionals must acknowledge that each client has their own unique sexuality. Avoiding discussions with a client about their non-traditional sexual interests can lead to missed opportunities for fostering sexual health and exploring avenues for abuse prevention. Attempting to eradicate non-traditional sexuality from the client’s life can be ineffective and unethical. Therefore, how should helping professionals proceed in such situations?

Nikole Nassen, Ph.D., a distinguished clinical psychologist and the director of the Sex Offender Treatment Program at Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar, brings her wealth of experience in working with individuals who have expressed non-traditional sexual interests to the forefront. During this training, Dr. Nassen first presents data on BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism) and other practices in the kink community, unveiling surprising insights from research studies. Dr. Nassen then examines “kink culture” and illustrates how many of its strongest values are antithetical to abuse. Enhanced comprehension of non-traditional sexual preferences among professionals can significantly enhance the effectiveness of treatment interventions.

Central to this training is the question: “What can we learn from refugees from Myanmar that can inform our forensic work with other clients?”

This training takes an in-depth look at developing skills for becoming more culturally competent, respectful, and humble within practice using the forensic assessment of refugees from Myanmar as the central example. It aims to equip mental health professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the complexities of cross-cultural assessments and interventions, fostering a deeper understanding and respect for diverse cultural backgrounds. With an increasing number of Burmese refugees being treated in various settings, the presenters provide practical strategies for forensic evaluators to understand the cultural backgrounds and experiences of their clients through empathic listening and culturally sensitive approaches.

The integration of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) can provide clients with a more empowering, collaborative, and effective therapeutic experience. Rather than focusing on the issues that brought clients to seek therapy, SFBT concentrates on cultivating solutions and leveraging the client’s strengths. By combining the collaborative, empathetic techniques of MI with the future-oriented, strengths-based techniques of SFBT, professionals can help clients achieve lasting change in a brief timeframe. During this training, Dee-Dee Stout explores key concepts and strategies of both MI and SFBT.