Group Therapy for Adults Who Have Sexually Abused

This event is part of a collection of upcoming trainings on the topic of assessing and treating adults who have sexually abused. Click here to learn more!

You must attend the entire live training to be eligible for CE credits. If you seek only psychology credits, the evaluation is optional, and you can remain anonymous. Counselors seeking credit from other professional disciplines must submit an evaluation with their name and email address.

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Providing group therapy requires more skill than many professionals often realize. This training is for professionals who are new to the field as well as more seasoned professionals who want to learn new skills from an established expert.

For many years, group therapy has been the preferred mode of treating adults who had sexually abused, quite simply because it is more efficient—in terms of both time and cost—than individual treatment. Today, however, we know that group treatment is about so much more than treating many clients at once. 

This online training focuses on how treatment providers can create and facilitate high-functioning treatment groups that benefit clients and improve treatment outcomes. It outlines 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 form the center of this training’s discussions. This training further explores how to build adherence to a well-defined, clearly communicated structure for creating an effective group atmosphere. It reviews significant moments that occur in groups and various scenarios that training participants can expect. Special attention will 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.

Topics Include:
1) Group treatment as a safe space for making difficult changes.
2) The evidence base that supports the benefits of group-based treatment.
3) Essential elements of effective groups.
4) Group facilitation techniques. 
5) Clinical issues including topics such as “myopic thinking” and resisting the urge to intercede or micromanage clients’ daily lives feeling overly responsible for outcomes.

As a result of this training, participants will be better able to:
1) Describe the history of group treatment interventions.
2) Explain essential elements of effective groups, such as cohesion and the therapeutic alliance.
3) Define and implement an effective structure for group treatment sessions.
4) Describe research studies supporting group treatment effectiveness.
5) Implement techniques for selecting members of groups.
6) Explain how clinician characteristics can help or hinder a group.

This program is co-sponsored by Safer Society Press and Continuing Excellence, LLC
Continuing Excellence, LLC
P.O. Box 134, East Middlebury, VT 05740
Tel: (802) 771-4155
Info@ContinuingExcellence.com
www.ContinuingExcellence.com

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Steven Sawyer, MSSW
Founder and President, Sawyer Solutions, LLC

Steven Sawyer, MSSW, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and is founder and President of Sawyer Solutions, LLC, a private clinical and consulting practice. He was a founding board member and Executive Director of a local non-profit treatment agency in Minnesota where he served for 17 years, a founding board member and past chapter president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (MNATSA), a past board member of ATSA, and is a past board member and chair of the Minnesota Board of Social Work. He currently provides clinical and consultation services to individuals, families and organizations. He serves as a consultant to catholic religious orders on matters of sexual abuse prevention, and management and personnel issues, and provides clinical supervision services for State employees. He has given lectures and trainings locally and nationally to public and professional groups about sexual offender treatment and sexual abuse prevention. He has published more than 18 articles and book chapters on a program for men who use prostitutes, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, group therapy with adults who sexually offend, sex dysfunction in sex offenders, and treatment program outcome research. Over the past 33 years he has facilitated or observed more than 4000 hours of group therapy, has assessed and treated hundreds of men who have committed sexual crimes, and has supervised the treatment of several thousand men in sexual offender treatment.

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Additional Information

Audience
This training is for professionals working with people who have perpetrated abuse. Professionals who will benefit from this training include social workers, psychologists, clinical counselors, and interested paraprofessionals.

Content Level
Introductory to Intermediate

Disclosure
The presenter does have published materials related to the training from which they may benefit financially.