Continuing Education Center

Our field’s understanding of strategies to mitigate violence has evolved significantly, expanding beyond a sole focus on risk in assessment and treatment. Yet, there remains much to learn about working with clients from cultures and backgrounds different from our own. To truly prevent violence and abuse, it is essential that professionals in our field openly discuss both our current knowledge of cultural sensitivity and the gaps that remain with one another and our communities beyond. Embracing cultural humility and committing to lifelong professional growth are key to this process.

In this free training, Dr. Alexander—an expert in culturally informed practices and policies—shares valuable lessons learned and explores future directions in the treatment and prevention of violence, particularly with respect to culturally informed assessment and treatment

In this training, Amanda Pryor explores methods and techniques for engaging families experiencing these challenges, while also addressing the professionals’ own feelings of being overwhelmed. This includes how to carefully redefine one’s approach when previous providers have not been helpful, such as by shifting from interventions that may unintentionally target parents to more inclusive family support methods.

Traditional approaches to sexual offense treatment focus on suppressing or controlling sexual urges, but research and clinical experience now emphasize the importance of promoting healthy sexuality as part of rehabilitation. For individuals with histories of sexual offending, addressing issues such as sexual dysfunction, negative self-image, intimacy problems, and deviant sexual scripts in treatment, can decrease the risk of reoffending.

Unfortunately, many professionals experience discomfort and other challenges when discussing sexual topics with clients, leading to avoidance or negative messaging about sex and sexuality. Consequently, clients may not receive the support they need to explore their sexual interests, develop healthy sexual expression, and achieve treatment goals related to consensual and non-harmful sexuality.

This presentation, developed by Nikole Nassen, PhD, focuses on how professionals can address sexual topics with adults in sexual offense treatment.

In this session, Ms. Garder explores common ethical dilemmas and provides guidance for delivering effective services to those working with domestic violence survivors and those who have caused harm. She also offers skills and tools for supervising clinicians, particularly clinicians with limited experience in domestic violence. Through case examples, interactive discussion, and actionable frameworks, attendees gain insight into the challenges of balancing their desire for client safety against the reality that predicting and stopping violence is outside the clinician’s complete control.

In this training, Ms. Buckley introduces the CARE method and discusses its development. She emphasizes the importance of a person-centered approach to engagement, particularly in the treatment of justice-involved clients. These individuals often have histories of trauma, exhibit rigid cognitive styles, possess limited coping skills, and may struggle to trust professionals. Ms. Buckley explores these client characteristics and provides insight into how involvement with the criminal justice system can influence those characteristics.

The training then covers the CARE method in detail, addressing topics such as identifying triggers, building emotional intelligence, understanding intergenerational trauma, enhancing communication skills, and recognizing cognitive distortions. Ms. Buckley highlights the importance of relational dynamics, including healthy conflict resolution and the impact of substance abuse on relationships, and she suggests strategies for addressing warning signs of relational decline.

Compassion Focused Group Psychotherapy (CFGP) provides a supportive environment where clients with complex challenges can learn and practice compassion skills together, creating the conditions necessary for exploratory group psychotherapy that is especially beneficial for those who find it difficult to trust or connect with others. It has been adapted by Dr. Kate Lucre, today’s presenter, from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) for use in a group setting. The product of Paul Gilbert, CFT integrates cognitive behavioral therapy with evolutionary psychology, social psychology, neuroscience, and Buddhist psychology.

In this training, Dr. Lucre introduces participants to practical techniques for engaging clients in the group process and facilitating therapeutic insights.

In this training, Certified Trainer Katie Gotch provides a thorough overview of the Static-99R, including its development, scoring system, and application in various settings. Participants learn how to score each of the ten items, with scores ranging from -3 to 12, and understand how these scores categorize individuals into five distinct risk levels: very low, below average, average, above average, and well above average risk.

The training also covers the predictive validity of the Static-99R and its appropriate use in forensic settings. Case studies are utilized to enhance understanding and facilitate skill development throughout the training.

In this training, Certified Trainer Katie Gotch provides a thorough overview of the Static-99R, including its development, scoring system, and application in various settings. Participants learn how to score each of the ten items, with scores ranging from -3 to 12, and understand how these scores categorize individuals into five distinct risk levels: very low, below average, average, above average, and well above average risk.

The training also covers the predictive validity of the Static-99R and its appropriate use in forensic settings. Case studies are utilized to enhance understanding and facilitate skill development throughout the training.

Clinical supervision plays a vital role in supporting new clinicians and maintaining high standards of client care. It helps to ensure the development of professional skills, encourages self-reflection, and promotes self-awareness among supervisees. Dr. Michelle Yep Martin developed this training to address the challenges and risks inherent in clinical supervision of counselors, social workers, and psychologists. The training explores the roles of the supervisor and supervisee, as well as the feedback loop between them. It reviews the codes of ethics of these three professions and describes common ethical issues in supervisory practice, including maintaining confidentiality and professionalism in the supervisory relationship.

Dr. Michelle Yep Martin has long supervised clinicians for licensure and approved provider statuses. Her approach to this material is accessible to beginning as well as more experienced supervisors.

The fields of assessing and treating women who have committed sexually motivated offenses continue to grow and evolve. The extant research literature provides an empirical basis for assessing women from a gendered perspective. This perspective is a person-centered, strength-based approach that takes into consideration how gender affects patterns of offending for women. When viewed from this perspective, women who perpetrate sexually motivated offenses require risk assessment and treatment approaches that differ from approaches used with their male counterparts. This workshop provides empirically supported guidance related to assessing and treating women who have committed sexually motivated offenses.

Dawn Pflugradt, PsyD, LP, LCSW and Bradley P. Allen, PhD, JD—two of the leading experts in this field— developed this training to highlight key research findings and provide current insights and best practices based on their decades of experience working with women who have sexually abused.