Date: 22/10/2019 at 9:30am
End date: 22/10/2019 at 4:00pm
Trainer: Dr Andrew Smith

Workshop Description

There is a need for counselling provision for partners of individuals who have committed sexual offences, particularly partners of persons who have sexually offended on the internet – a rapidly increasing crime. Often partners are very isolated due to the stigma of sexual offending. They tend to bear the brunt of the involvement of Child Protection Services, being left in the home to care for children after the father has been removed. Often counselling sessions with partners are dominated by the clients’ complaints about child protection professionals. The training day has been designed to help counsellors engage with these issues to provide a constructive way forward for this growing client group, focusing on the following:

• Understanding how the child protection system works
• The experience of sex offenders going through the child protection system
• The experience of partners going through the child protection system
• Working with denial, minimisation and risk assessment with this specific client group
• The Journey of Risk Awareness
• The importance of establishing what clients want:
• Help through the crisis?
• Re-negotiating the relationship with a partner?
• Increasing safeguarding ability?
• Tension between the non-abusing partner having a responsibility to protect, and co-depedency issues
• Pitfalls and advantages of counsellors and therapists working systemically with child protection professionals
• Working with one partner: either the person posing the sexual risk, or the partner
• The pros and cons of working with both partners, separately and together
• What ability to protect children from a partner looks like
• How to enhance ability to protect

The day will include Powerpoint presentation, large and small group discussions, case study work. Attendees will also be provided with a brief workbook to help improve the protective ability of the non-abusing partner