A Strengths-Based Approach with William and Liam Marshall
In the mid-1970s, William Marshall and his colleagues at Queen’s University began to tackle one of the biggest questions facing therapists who work with people who have sexually abused: are those who perpetrate sexual abuse less driven by their impulse to offend thanks to treatment? Do we have an effective way to deal with those who sexually traumatize their victims?
There have been many questionable mental health treatment techniques in the past; treatments such as isolation, constraints, bloodletting, and lobotomy. This was also true for treatments for sex offenders for whom questionable approaches such as surgical and medical castration and aversion therapy were common.
Developing a Measure of Sexual Interest
During a recent Safer Talk webinar, William Marshall and his son Liam retell the fascinating details around the beginnings of modern and effective treatments for people who have sexually abused. Dr. Marshall describes how he directed a team at Queens University to build the first “phallometric” device in Canada to measure sexual interest among offenders—the first device (at that time filling an entire room) to help measure the effects of therapy on offenders.
The device that could measure erectile responses to stimuli gained a great deal of attention, and soon researchers from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore were developing treatment programs for sex offenders. All this activity contributed to the formation of the Association for the Treatment & Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA), which started with a few gatherings of colleagues to now an international organization boasting over 3,000 members from over 20 countries, a journal, and a heavily attended yearly conference.
Turning to a Strengths-Based Approach
Marshall highlights how his thinking about treatment for people who perpetrate sexual abuse has changed over the years. His life experiences taught him that we will find no success treating offenders by “bashing them about the deeds they’ve done” but rather by “…giving them the strengths and skills to function in the world as effective members of society.”
“Therapists are preparing [sex offenders] for life after prison or after treatment. We need to give them skills so that they can function and meet their needs in prosocial ways. What do people need to function in the world? They need social and employment skills. What strengths do they need? We need to conceptualize treatment in those terms. I made a bet that most therapists working with sex offenders would happily respond to the idea of a strengths-based approach. And they did.”
In the webinar interview, William and Liam discuss how they discovered that the personal characteristics of the therapist, such as empathy and warmth, play an important role in successful sex offender treatment.
The interview is hosted by David Prescott, Safer Society’s Director of Continuing Education, who adds his own background in this area. David fields many excellent questions from attendees, which adds to this lively discussion. We hope you find it to be a unique opportunity to learn from innovators in the field of sex offender treatment.