Creating High-Functioning Treatment Groups for Adults Who Have Sexually Abused

This online training focuses on how treatment providers can create and facilitate high-functioning treatment groups that benefit clients and improve treatment outcomes. It provides a historical overview of what works in group treatment and what the research evidence has shown. Areas such as group cohesion, the therapeutic alliance, and how member interactions deepen the group’s impact on each group member will form the center of these discussions. This training further explores how to build adherence to a well-defined, clearly communicated structure in order to create a safe and positive emotional climate. Special attention is be given to the challenges this work can create for clinicians; for example, knowing when to intercede and when to resist the urge to micromanage clients’ interactions and unwittingly impair group processes.

Understanding the Challenges Resulting from Pedophilia Diagnoses

Many experts have suggested that pedophilia and pedophilic disorder are poorly differentiated by the DSM-5-TR. This is partly supported by three independent studies showing that a diagnosis of pedophilia does not predict sexual offending against children. The stakes are high: Without diagnostic clarity, we can fail to intervene appropriately, thereby perpetuating risk to children. We can also cause harm to the wrong people by mislabeling them.

Ensuring the safety of our communities and the protection of children is a shared priority. However, we have a long way to go in ensuring best practices in diagnostic procedures. In this webinar, researcher and evaluator Robin J. Wilson joins David Prescott to discuss the challenges that professionals and clients face with this diagnosis.

Treating Individuals at High Risk of Sexual Re-Offense in Institutional and Community Settings: The IRATS Model

In this training, the presenters explain how clinicians can apply the principles of the Integrated Assessment and Treatment System (IRATS) Model in both institutional and community settings. The IRATS has received empirical support from a variety of long-term outcome studies comparing various groups of treated and untreated individuals convicted of sexual offenses. The presenters discuss how clinicians can integrate treatment for serious mental illness with the IRATS model. The IRATS model offers a holistic perspective and emphasizes that client mental health needs are integral to the treatment concerns with which clients present. This is particularly important given that there is now a large body of research indicating that mental health needs are both directly and indirectly related to recidivism among individuals convicted of sexual offenses.

Implementing Effective, Victim-Centered Practices and Policies Regarding Sexual Offending

Though well-intentioned, policies and practices regarding sexual offending that are advocated by lawmakers and their constituents all too often result in efforts that are counterproductive for the long-term safety of the community. Just as problematically, they fail to adequately take into account the needs of the victims of abuse and do not adequately promote actions that can help individuals who have abused avoid re-offending.

Blending Motivational Interviewing Skills with Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

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.

Navigating the Challenges of Supervising Professionals Treating Sexual Aggression

Clinical supervision is a crucial component in the field of psychotherapy. It can involve educating newer clinicians on methods and models, helping them improve their practice in different directions, providing support and encouragement, and helping supervisees manage the inevitable reactions they have to clients’ historical behaviors.

Dr. Must and Mr. Prescott’s training provides supervisors with the tools and knowledge necessary to excel in their roles within the field, ultimately contributing to improved client care and clinician development.

Clarification Processes in Sibling Sexual Abuse: Ethical Decision-making and Best Practices

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. In this workshop, Amanda Pryor explores these processes and the ethical dilemmas that can arise. She begins by defining clarification and how it is distinct from other related concepts.

Overcoming Common Issues in the Treatment of Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Harmful Behavior

This training addresses current practices in the assessment, treatment, safety planning, and clarification in working with adolescent clients who have engaged in sexually harmful behaviors, as well as how to overcome some of the unique challenges of this work. The content is informed by the guidelines created by the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), which are based on the principles of risk, need, and responsivity.