Dr Joseph Sakdalan
Biography:
The biographies won't fit here. We have added them to the abstracts.
Abstract:
Mainstream offender treatment programs generally utilise a hybrid of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and the Relapse Prevention (RP) model and are considered the best practice in sexual offender treatment. While meta-analytic studies provide support for the effectiveness of sexual and violent offender treatment programs in correctional and forensic mental health settings, there is a need for further research to tailor programs to individual offenders’ needs effectively (e.g., Harrison et al., 2020; Papalia et al., 2019). Researchers and treatment specialists acknowledge the serious gaps in the knowledge base, and there is a need for further study about what, when and how offender treatment works (Schmuker & Losel, 2015). There are concerns that most of these mainstream programs do not generally address issues around offenders’ traumatic histories and attachment issues, which are prevalent, especially with forensic mental health consumers. Standard sexual offender treatment programs do not generally focus on teaching the consumers self-management skills to help deal with painful effects; hence, my result is attrition.
This symposium will focus on innovations in offender treatment in forensic mental health settings. The papers will discuss innovative trauma-informed treatment approaches, such as Schema-Focused Therapy (SFT), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR), and adapted Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and their application to sexual offender treatment. These 'novel' treatment approaches are envisaged to address treatment gaps, which can help improve treatment effectiveness.