Clients’ Personal Histories – Collecting Helpful Information
Client self-disclosure of personal history is essential to assessment, treatment, and the development of effective plans for preventing further harm to others. Steven Sawyer, MSSW, LICSW, ATSA-F developed this training to offer methods for helping clients to explore their life experiences, including the use of a structured workbook called Your Personal History.
Throughout the training, Sawyer demonstrates how client disclosure provides insights into various areas, including:
- Strengths and personal resources
- Attachment style and patterns of relating
- Openness to treatment, change, and self-reflection
- Family of origin and developmental history
- Relationships and social history
- Mental health concerns and trauma history
- Personality traits and personal assessments
- Sexual history and related concerns
The session further provides an overview of the workbook’s purpose, content, and practical application. It illustrates how collecting personal histories using tools such as Your Personal History serves as both a data collection procedure for intake or assessment and a series of pretreatment exercises to build treatment readiness and enhance self-reflection.
Participants gain a thorough understanding of how to integrate collecting personal histories and the workbook into their clinical practice, ultimately supporting positive outcomes in the therapeutic process.
Interactive Follow-Up Meeting
Attendees are invited to join an open discussion 15 minutes following the end of the training, where you can engage with fellow attendees by turning on your camera and microphone. This is an opportunity to share your experiences and contribute to a meaningful exchange of ideas. Time will be allocated to address questions or insights from the training. Please note that attendance is optional and will not affect your eligibility for a training certificate.
1) Facilitate client self-disclosure in the treatment of sexual aggression.
2) Collect data for comprehensive assessments using a personal history workbook.
3) Employ personal history information in preparation for abuse-specific treatment.
4) Incorporate a client’s history into pre-treatment self-assessment of personal strengths, attachment style, openness to treatment change
Audience
This training is primarily for clinicians, mental health professionals, and evaluators who conduct intake assessments or treatment planning with clients. Is it also suitable for therapists, counselors, and professionals working in forensic or court-mandated settings who need structured approaches to collecting client history. This includes social workers, psychologists, and clinical counselors.
Content Level
Disclosure
Cancellations
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.
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
Safer Society Foundation, Inc., provider #233, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 06/06/2025—06/06/2026. Social workers completing this course receive 2 clinical continuing education credits.
Who's Presenting
Steven Sawyer, MSSW, LICSW, ATSA-F
Mr. Sawyer earned his MSSW from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. He is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and is founder and President of Sawyer Solutions, LLC, a private clinical and consulting practice. He was a founding board member and Executive Director of Project Pathfinder, Inc., a founding board member and past chapter president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (MNATSA), and is a past board member and chair of the Minnesota Board of Social Work.
In his clinical practice he provides clinical and consultation services to individuals, families and organizations. Over the past 40 years he has assessed and treated hundreds of men who have committed sexual crimes and has supervised or been involved in the treatment of several thousand men in sexual offender treatment.
For more than 20 years he served as a consultant to catholic religious orders on matters of sexual perpetrator assessment, and sexual abuse prevention and management. He has provided clinical supervision and training services for the State of Minnesota since 2013 and has provided clinical supervision to more than 40 clinicians. He has consulted with civil commitment programs, and provided full day trainings and webinars for state agencies and clinicians.
Mr. Sawyer is an experienced public speaker for the media and professionals. He has given lectures and trainings locally and nationally to public and professional groups about sexual offender treatment, group therapy and sexual abuse prevention. He has published more than 20 articles, workbooks, and book chapters on topics ranging from a program for men who use prostitutes, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, group therapy with adult sexual offenders, sex dysfunction in sex offenders, and sex offender treatment program outcome research.