Date: 16/08/2019 at 9:30am
End date: 16/08/2019 at 4:00pm
Trainer: Dr Andrew Smith

Workshop Description

Many individuals who have sexually offended, or who are thought to pose a sexual risk to others, have experienced adversity and trauma in their lives, including being themselves victims of sexual abuse. In order to fully understand the harm caused to others by their sexual offending, and to go on to live pro-social lives in which mutually respectful and non-exploitative relationships can be established, such individuals sometimes have to come to terms with their own victim experiences. In many cases, this can be best achieved through a counselling process focusing specifically on victim issues, separate from but contributing to offence-focused treatment work.

The training day has been designed to help counsellors engage with this complex client group, focusing on the following:

• Counsellors’ feelings when working with people who have sexually offended, and how to manage conflicting emotions
• Research with regard to being a victim of abuse and perpetrating abuse
• Attending to shame issues
• Managing the disclosing and discussing of abuse
• The therapeutic and safeguarding benefits of exploring a client’s victim experiences
• The difference between empathy and collusion
• How to cope with concerns about being manipulated, groomed and the client attempting to sexualise the counselling relationship
• Exploring how victims of abuse can develop faulty schemas about the world, leading to distorted thinking about sexual and relational matters
• Understanding cycles of sexual abuse, whereby victims can become perpetrators, resulting in involvement with the criminal justice system
• Understanding cycles of sexual abuse whereby victims, as parents, can fail to protect children from abuse, often necessitating child protection investigations
• What does therapeutic/rehabilitative/safeguarding progress look like?
• How to manage denial and minimisation of offending behaviour

The day will include Powerpoint presentation, large and small group discussions, case study work.