Building Hope and Motivation with Suicidal Clients in Criminal Justice

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness month. The number of people with mental illness who are incarcerated is twice the rate of the overall adult population (NAMI). To help in the prevention of suicide, we are hosting a free one-hour webinar with Senior Training Consultant and Motivational Interviewing Trainer for the Department of Justice and Public Safety, Nathalie Cyr.

Let’s Connect!

The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory this year on the healing power of social connection and community. Technology has made it easier for us to stay connected, but we are facing more loneliness than ever. But there is hope. In his report, Dr. Vivek Murthy said, “each of us can start now, in our own lives, by strengthening our connections and relationships. Our individual relationships are an untapped resource—a source of healing hiding in plain sight. They can help us live healthier, more productive, and more fulfilled lives.” At Safer Society we believe in the benefits of cultivating connections and work to create networking opportunities for our community.

Reducing Risk with Continuity of Care Between Systems

The evaluation and treatment of people convicted of sexual crimes has changed dramatically over the last decade. We no longer reference the containment model and have adopted more comprehensive approaches. Many programs and practitioners have worked to implement the principles of effective correctional rehabilitation (such as risk, need, and responsivity) in the treatment and management of individuals who have committed sexual offenses. However, barriers frequently arise based on where the professionals providing these services are situated. Supervising officers are often employed by a

Let’s Take the Stigma Out of Employing People with a History of Behavioral Issues

Employment can be an important re-entry method and strong protective factor for people who have committed an offense or with a history of behavior issues. Yet many employers are unwilling to hire these individuals. By increasing employers’ understanding, we can promote inclusive hiring and healthy workplaces.

This webinar features an open dialogue with Working Fields, a staffing agency that specializes in helping people eliminate barriers to employment. We will discuss hiring people with past behavioral issues, address common misconceptions, and tackle questions from Working Fields employer partners.

Do Sanctions Affect Undetected Sexual Offending?

Not every sex crime is reported to authorities. This simple fact has caused considerable fear in society, leading to questions about how much we really know about sexual abuse and those who perpetrate it. For those researching sex crimes, it becomes even more complicated: the rate of actual offending (both detected and undetected) appears to vary widely depending on who is being studied, how undetected sexual offending is defined, and how undetected sexual offenses are measured.

Building Hope and Motivation with Suicidal Clients in Criminal Justice

Working with justice-involved adults brings many challenges, among which are assessing the likelihood of future harmful acts and forming trusting relationships with clients in order to help them become productive members of society. One challenge that is often overlooked by those working with justice-involved clients is understanding and intervening when clients become suic

Self-Care for Practitioners

A recent article published by the APA highlights the pressure that psychologists face from increased workload. Global and local issues, as well as the aftermath of the pandemic, have affected professionals and clients alike. Professionals are providing services to disenfranchised people and populations while enduring unprecedented stressors.  

Join Safer Society for a training on practicing self-care. This workshop begins with the recent literature and results from surveys in 2020 and 2023 examining the impact of the pandemic and self-care among people working with justice-involved clients. Discussion follows, including the emotional, physical, and

Applying Circles of Support and Accountability with People Who Access Child Sexual Exploitation Material

Circles of Support & Accountability (CoSA) is a restorative justice-informed initiative intended to assist in the post-release community integration of persons with sexual offense histories after periods of incarceration or other detention. It uses community volunteers trained and supported by locally employed professionals and experts. Since its inception, CoSA has been consistently shown to significantly reduce harm while increasing the likelihood of successful integration of participants into the community. In September 2020, Circles UK launched an innovative new program, Circles ReBoot, which helps individuals who have accessed Child Sexual Exploitation Material, who are typically at high risk to persist in offending and who have high levels of treatment need.

Mindfulness Approaches For Promoting Wellbeing in Adolescents

This webinar presents ideas for integrating mindfulness and other brain-based approaches into the treatment of adolescents with histories of harmful behaviors. The ideas incorporate the rigor of science, the beauty of art, the wisdom of reflection, and years of clinical experience in this field. The presenter, Michelle Gourley, first became formally experienced with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in the wake of significant personal life events. This led her to explore how this approach, and others like it, can be used with the clients in her care.