Applying the Good Lives and Self-Regulation Models to Sex Offender Treatment

A Practical Guide for Clinicians

By Pamela M. Yates, Ph.D., R.D.Psych; David Prescott, L.I.C.S.W.; & Tony Ward, Ph.D., DipClinPsyc.

Buy it now | View the Table of Contents and Introduction.

Here for the first time is a comprehensive guide to integrating the Good Lives and Self-Regulation models into a sex offender treatment program. The authors present the two models as a combined program to achieve two goals with offenders: building a lifestyle incompatible with offending and effectively managing risk. This book is a thorough, step-by-step guide that first lays the groundwork with the fundamentals, continues with sections on assessment and treatment, and wraps up with post-treatment maintenance and supervision.

A practical, common-sense guide written specifically for clinicians from the leading Good Lives experts, this is a book that should be part of the library of everyone who treats or manages sex offenders. (2010)

Tony Ward has made a short video introduction to the Good Lives Model and its use in treatment of people with sexual behavior problems. Watch here.

About the Authors

Pamela M Yates, Ph.D. has worked as a clinician and researcher in various capacities with adults and youth, including sexual offenders, violent offenders, individuals with substance abuse problems, and victims of violence, and has developed accredited offender treatment programs. Her research and publications include offender rehabilitation, assessment and treatment of sexual offenders, program evaluation, risk assessment, treatment effectiveness, psychopathy, and sexual sadism. She has written extensively on the Self-Regulation and Good Lives Models of sexual offender intervention.

David Prescott, LICSW is currently Clinical Director of the Becket Programs of Maine, having previously served as Clinical Director of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in Moose Lake and as Treatment Assessment Director of the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Wisconsin. Mr. Prescott is the author and editor of seven books on working with sexual offenders of all ages, and is a Past President of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

Tony Ward, Ph.D., DipClinPsyc is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology and Head of Department at Victoria University of New Zealand. His research interests include offender cognition, reintegration and desistance, ethical issues in forensic psychology, and evolutionary approaches to understanding human behavior. He has authored over 280 academic publications and his latest book (co-authored with Richard Laws) is Desisting from Sex Offending: Alternatives to Throwing Away the Keys (Guilford Press, October, 2010).

Praise from the field

Always ahead of the curve, Pamela Yates, David Prescott, and Tony Ward present us with a cogent roadmap for the future of sexual offender treatment. Clinicians will appreciate the practical guidelines and case examples while researchers will revel in the comprehensive empirical foundation. As a scientist-practitioner, it is wonderful to finally have everything I need available in one solid publication.
–Robin J. Wilson, Ph.D., ABPP, Clinical Director, Florida Civil Commitment Center and Professor, Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, Toronto

This book is an essential part of the library for any therapist working with sexual offenders.
–Jill Levenson, Ph.D., LCSW, Fort Lauderdale, FL, co-author of The Road to Freedom

Individuals who are successful in life define their goals in terms of what they want to achieve, not what they want to avoid. This important book champions a forward-focused, positive, individualized intervention approach to working with individuals who engage in sexually abusive behavior. It is a cutting edge resource for treatment providers and supervision officers on how to help those they work with to lead a “good life” that is incompatible with sexual offending.
–Robert J. McGrath, M.A., Clinical Director, Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Abusers and co-author of Supervision of the Sex Offender, 2nd Edition.