Venue: Premier Meetings Manchester Central (GMEX), Bishopsgate, 7-11 Lower Mosley Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester M2 3DW
Contact: Jo Sims - jo@stopso.org.uk - 07473 299883 for any more information please see website www.stopso.org.uk
Cost £1600 for Full Certificate
You can pay in instalments for the full Professional Certificate (£250 deposit, x3 £450 post-dated cheques)
If the full Professional Certificate is not what you are looking for, individual modules/1 weekend can be booked by clicking here.
The Professional Certificate in Therapeutic Practice with Sex Offenders has been developed to provide counsellors, psychotherapists and other practitioners such as psychologists, probation officers, social workers and project workers with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to work therapeutically with this client group. The course also prepares practitioners to work with partners of such individuals and with couples, where one party is at risk of sexual offending.
The course is divided into five, two-day modules, offered at weekends.
Saturday: Arrive 09.30 for 10:00 start. Finish at 18:00
Sunday: Arrive 09.00 for 09:30 start. Finish at 16:00
Each weekend module builds upon the others in order to provide an increasingly comprehensive level of training. The prerequisite for joining the Professional Certificate is completion of StopSO’s three introductory training days:
1. Crossing the line, including legal and ethical issues
2. Assessing risk
3. Treatment interventions
Participants who can evidence significant experience of working with sex offenders may be exempt from completing the above introductory days.
If the full Professional Certificate is not what you are looking for, individual modules/1 weekend can be booked by clicking here.
Module 1
Day 1 : Saturday 23rd Mar 2019
Emotional issues for practitioners: including making best use of supervision (Andrew Smith)
Course introductions
Contracting with regard to confidentiality and conduct
Anxieties and expectations
Shame and stigma related to sexual offending
Folk Devils, Master Status
The statistical reality of sexual offending
Moral Pollution
Transference and Countertransference issues
Vicarious Traumatisation
Confirmation Bias
Principles of Reflective Practice
Examples of poor, unreflective practice
Examples of good, reflective practice
What is good supervision?
What is needed from a supervisor, when working with this particular client group?
How to make the most of supervision
Day 2 : Sunday 24th Mar 2019
Paedophiles: Offending and Non-offending (Julie Newberry)
Welcome; introductions; ground rules; aims of the day (large group session)
What it means to find oneself sexually attracted to children
Thinking about paedophilia – definitions, prevalence, aetiology, treatment
The experience of ‘Kevin’, the online paedophile community and findings from the Minor-Attracted Adult (MAA) Daily Lives Research Project
Research findings on attraction and fantasies; self-identity; experiences of support; debate and dissent within the paedophile community
Thinking about the interactions between paedophilia, online images of abuse, and sadism
‘Sexual libertarian’ and ‘child protection’ discourses in the literature
Supporting the non-offending paedophile
Film extracts from ‘The Woodsman’ and ‘The Paedophile Next Door’
A new paradigm on adult sexual attraction to children; reflecting on sexuality, abuse and hope. The implications for practice
Module 2
Day 1 : Saturday 27th Apr 2019
Attachment and Trauma Issues (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous day
Summary of main learning covered so far
Four different attachment styles, and how they can relate to sexual offending
Research regarding attachment and sexual offending
What is trauma? Different types of trauma
Research regarding trauma and sexual offending
The trauma of being a victim of sexual abuse, and the relationship to sexual offending
The relationship between dysfunctional attachment, trauma, patriarchy and common schemas/implicit theories, observed in the discourses of sex offenders
Exploration of main issues arising from above
Therapeutic approaches to working with sex offenders with trauma and attachment issues
Day 2 : Sunday 28th Apr 2019
Power and Control Issues and Paraphilias (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous sessions
Summary of main learning covered so far
Psychological and sociological perspectives on power
Sexual offenders with intellectual disabilities
Psychopathology, personality disordered sexual offenders
Different paraphilias
When is sado-masochism a clinical problem?
Treating voyeurs
Treating exhibitionism
Treating idiosyncratic harmful fetishes
Module 3
Day 1 : Saturday 18th May 2019
Sexual Assault and Rape (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous day
Summary of main learning covered so far
What constitutes rape and different forms of rape
Different forms of rape, illustrating different motivations and different triggers
Sexual exploitation
Different therapeutic approaches to treatment for individuals who perpetrate sexual assault and rape of adults
Day 2 : Sunday 19th May 2019
Internet Offending and Sexual Addiction (Mike Sheath)
Assumptions about internet offenders: Viewers or ‘Doers,’ ‘Crossover’ and ‘Direction of travel’
‘Traditional’ sex offender theory and counselling practice
Similarities and differences between internet and contact sexual offenders
Motives for viewing Child Sexual Abuse material: cognitive, sexual, emotional, practical
Schema Theory and its applicability to ‘contact’ and ‘non-contact’ offenders
Drivers of pornography addiction, disinhibition, and collecting
The CSAM cycle. Combining traditional sex offender theory with addiction theory
Raising empathy, offering insight and control
Issues for partners (Large group discussion)
Module 4
Day 1 : Saturday 22nd Jun 2019
Working with Female Offenders (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous sessions
Summary of main learning covered so far
Emotional reaction to women who sexually abuse
Theories of why more women are being convicted of sexual offences, and why the impact of female offending is often minimised
Backgrounds of females who offend
Females who offend to please men
Females who offend in ritual abuse settings
Females who offend in gang cultures
Females who offend against underage, non-related males
Females who offend against their own and other peoples’ children
Day 2 : Sunday 23rd Jun 2019
Working with Adolescents (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous sessions
Summary of main learning covered so far
How did sex seem when you were an adolescent?
How adolescent sexual offending is similar and different to adult sexual offending
Adolescent sex offenders and denial
Adolescent sex offenders and victim empathy
Adolescent sex offenders with attachment trauma problems
Adolescent sex offenders with male entitlement schema
Working with adolescent sex offenders who are in care settings
Module 5
Day 1 : Saturday 20th Jul 2019
Working with Family Members (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous sessions (Large group discussion)
Summary of main learning covered so far
Outline of Family System Theory
Discussion of pros and cons of System Theories
Working with other agencies, when involved with families
The lessons which can be learnt from Serious Case Reviews, in terms of inter-agency working and child sexual abuse
Who to potentially involve when working with family members and other agencies
Discussion about small group case study analysis (Large group discussion)
Day 2 : Sunday 21st Jul 2019
Couple Work (Andrew Smith)
Discussion of issues arising from previous day
Summary of main learning covered so far
Main challenges of couple work
What are we trying to achieve in couple work?
The tensions between co-dependency and improving the non-offending partner’s ability to protect
The pros and cons of couple work
Different couple work scenarios
At the end of the first day of each module, between 5 and 6pm, there is a one-hour learning group to reflect on integrating theory with practice.
Examination will be via students completing an on-going reflective learning log, and a viva. Completion of all the modules, the learning log and the viva is necessary to receive the Professional Certificate.
If the full Professional Certificate is not what you are looking for, individual modules/1 weekend can be booked by clicking here.
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