Sociocultural factors in the assessment and treatment of individuals who sexually offend are important to examine. Awareness of implicit biases and the cultural competence of the therapist are essential in ethical treatment. Cultural humility is the ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are more important to the client. Participants will become informed of cultural considerations in the assessment and treatment. This workshop will assist participants in identifying cultural factors (i.e., racial/ethnicity, language, religion, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability) during assessment to better inform treatment and risk management recommendations.

The Risk/Need/Responsivity (RNR) framework revolutionized correctional intervention schemes when it was first introduced in the 1990s. Since that time, practitioners and programs alike have worked to ensure that clients in forensic settings really do receive an intensity of intervention that is commensurate with the level of risk they pose (risk principle), while criminogenic needs are specifically targeted (need principle). However, despite gains in the areas of risk and need, the field continues to struggle with the responsivity principle, which encourages service providers to consider the nature of their involvement with clients.

This four-hour intensive workshop is tailored to professionals (including psychologists, social workers, and counselors) specializing in intimate partner violence and working within the criminal-justice, health-care, mental-health, and social-service systems.Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a person-centered counseling approach that helps individuals to explore and resolve ambivalence about change. After an orientation to the underlying spirit, structure and skills of MI, practical exercises will help participants strengthen skills for demonstrating empathy, recognizing and eliciting “change talk”, and rolling with client discord/resistance.

In summary, the workshop will present relevant research regarding brain development and maturity indicating that psychosocial immaturity in adolescence is a significant risk factor for general delinquency and harmful sexual behaviors, and that there are evidence-based methods for assessment and treatment of this factor.

This workshop explores what modern professionals can learn from traditional healing practices, particularly in helping people recover from trauma and prevent abuse of all kinds. As examples, the workshop focuses on understanding the ethical integration of how placebo, hope, and expectancy effects can be used to assist clients’ ability to participate in treatment as well as understanding transformative processes and their relationship to Maslow’s peak experiences and self-actualization. The workshop also explores the definitions of evidence-based practices and best-practice therapies and how current models do and don’t make use of what ancient knowledge has to offer. Finally, it examines the emerging research into entheogenic medicine and explores possible implications for multi-disciplinary treatment.

Dr. Sroufe’s groundbreaking theoretical and empirical contributions to the fields of developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology have been reported to the academic world in over 150 papers and journal articles and seven books. During the three-hour virtual training, Dr. Sroufe will discuss what he and his team of researchers learned about human development over the course of the longest running (40-year) study of attachment across the lifespan and across generations (known as the Minnesota Study of Risk and Adaptation from Birth to Adulthood). This will include an overview of the findings of research into attachment theory and how individual selves emerge from relationships. Dr. Sroufe will further explain how vulnerability, resilience, pathology, and health can be products of development. He will also discuss implications for promoting change for those with different attachment histories.

This training will provide a helpful framework for mental health practitioners and other professionals seeking to understand the intersection of technology, sexuality, and youth to professionals who work with adolescents. It explores the potential risks and benefits that the Internet offers regarding sexual education. It provides key resources that can help frame the issue for adults. Additionally, a brief review of adolescent development will help explain why adolescents are particularly vulnerable to risky online behavior. Attendees will be able to identify key terms and online trends such as cyber-dating violence, sexploitation, doxing, revenge porn, and catfishing. Attendees will learn about emerging ideas for intervention designed to address these issues and help teenagers grow into responsible digital citizens. Finally, attendees will also be introduced to information about popular social media personalities, the arrival of “gaming” as a distinct industry, and a brief explanation about the Darknet.

Client self-disclosure of personal history is essential to assessment, treatment, and the development of plans for preventing further harm to others. This workshop explores methods for helping clients to explore their lives, including through the use of a structured workbook. The workshop emphasizes how client disclosure can yield information about the individual’s strengths, attachment style, and amenability to treatment. It further introduces the Your Personal History workbook and provides a summary of the workbook’s content and purpose. The training will describe and illustrate the workbook’s use as a data collection tool for intake or assessment. It will also focus on using the workbook as a series of pretreatment exercises that build treatment readiness and the self-reflection mindset necessary for optimal treatment participation.