Cultivating Compassion Focussed Practice for Those Who Have Committed Sexual Offences

Taylor, John; Akerman, Geraldine; Hocken, Kerensa

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49068-3_3

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…As discussed earlier, the experiences of shame and guilt and their influence in organising and managing our social behaviour forms a central consideration of forensic CFT (Taylor et al , 2020). The pre-intervention assessments indicate that men referred to health-care for the risk focussed work experienced high levels of shame.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recognising the traumatic experiences in people’s lives allows us to understand the legacy of trauma; anger, anxiety, depression and shame are the emotions designed to manage the various threats that we can face, whilst our physiology adapts for maximum survival (Nusslock and Muller, 2016; Sheridan and McClaughlin, 2020; Nemeroff, 2016). Trauma sensitive services and interventions will need to acknowledge and address these responses, not as disorders, but as adaptive survival responses (Taylor et al , 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Compassion in custody: developing a trauma sensitive intervention for men with developmental disabilities who have convictions for sexual offending

Taylor¹

2021

AMHID

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Purpose This paper aims to provide a description of a trauma sensitive intervention for men who have committed sexual offences. The intervention aims to support men to process and make sense of their own experience of trauma before inviting them to acknowledge their role in causing harm to others. The intervention draws on compassion focussed therapy (CFT) as the overarching therapeutic modality. Design/methodology/approach As part of a service evaluation changes in routine repeat measures completed by service users were analysed prior to joining the intervention and after 12 months of intervention. Service users were encouraged to provide regular feedback relating to their experience of the intervention at regular intervals. This feedback was collated and patterns were identified collaboratively to understand the context for assessed change in the measures. Findings Prior to the intervention men reported high levels of shame and limited experiences of guilt (as compassion for others). Early findings indicate that men experience less shame and increased experiences of guilt after 12 months. An increase in insight into risk was also evident. Service user feedback pointed towards a more engaging therapeutic style and highlighted the importance of both a collaborative and trauma sensitive approach. Originality/value This is the first evaluative description of forensic CFT for sexual offending. Findings offer insight into potential future directions for forensic interventions with this population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compassion in custody: developing a trauma sensitive intervention for men with developmental disabilities who have convictions for sexual offending

Taylor¹

2021

AMHID

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“…These benefits include an understanding of the role of threat in the social environment, the orientation of the therapist or practitioner to their own feelings of compassion, and an understanding of the role of trauma and adversity in the development of criminogenic need and harmful behaviour. The first two of these factors are concerned with a broader therapeutic context, both in terms of the social climate of the intervention setting and the more specific climate of the therapeutic alliance(s) and are not the focus of our attention here (we refer to Taylor et al , 2020 for a more detailed account). Instead, we present a framework that can guide us through the challenges of supporting people with forensic histories to engage in challenging and at times distressing work to address criminogenic need, reduce risk of further harm and improve capacity for a healthy and safe lifestyle.…”

Section: Compassion-focused Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sometime later, Taylor (2017) described CFT as both a model for therapy and an overarching philosophy for forensic practice for men with mild intellectual disability who were convicted of a range of offences. More specific examples of the utility of CFT have since been provided for working with paraphilias (Walton and Hocken, 2020), working with men who commit sexual offences (Taylor et al , 2020; Hocken and Taylor, 2021; Taylor, 2021) and violent offending by young people (da Silva et al , 2020).…”

Section: Compassion-focused Therapy In Forensic Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While a trauma informed model can provide the architecture for service design, we feel this stops short of a holistic intervention. Building on the foundational work by Levenson and colleagues, we have proposed an approach that embraces the potential for change (optimism), alongside sensitivity to process and a trauma-informed methodology for both support and interventions (Taylor, et al , 2020). We have also suggested that compassion-focused therapy (Gilbert, 2010), as an integrative form of psychotherapy may offer this potential (Taylor and Hocken, 2021) to create trauma-informed and compassion-focused practice as a model of intervention for those who commit serious harm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hurt people hurt people: using a trauma sensitive and compassion focused approach to support people to understand and manage their criminogenic needs

Taylor¹,

Hocken

2021

JFP

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Purpose This paper aims to argue that to address those factors that contribute to the probability of offending, the origins of such factors should be understood, and interventions that recognise the functional aspects of criminogenic capacities should be developed. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a theoretical basis for trauma sensitive practice by providing an evolutionary understanding of human harmfulness alongside a summary of the impact of adversity and abuse on the developing child. Findings The paper proposes an overarching framework that uses compassion-focused therapy for risk reducing interventions with men who cause harm to others. Practical implications This paper encourages forensic practitioners to develop a trauma aware approach to intervention design and delivery. The paper provides an overview of a compassion-focused therapy as approach to intervention that conceptualises criminogenic capacities within a more holistic and functional framework. Originality/value Forensic interventions have been slow to assimilate evidence from adverse childhood experience research and have therefore been limited in their ability to address the functional origins of criminogenic need. This paper offers a framework that allows practitioners to address risk while also allowing individuals to process their own trauma and adversity.

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“The People Who Leave Here Are Not the People Who Arrived.”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Therapeutic Process and Identity Transition in the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway

Blagden

Evans²,

Gould³

et al. 2023

Criminal Justice and Behavior

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Individuals with personality disorder are often construed as difficult to treat, and sometimes even “untreatable.” In this study, 24 men who had completed treatment on the offender personality disorder treatment pathway participated in focus groups at a high-security prison in the United Kingdom. The results of the data analysis revealed three superordinate themes that captured the impact and experience of the therapeutic process. The three themes were “A self-reconstructed,” which focused on the reconstruing and reconstructions of participants’ identity and how intervention assisted with a coherent narrative of self. The second superordinate theme, “Relational resilience and dealing with abandonment,” relates to the attachment to therapists and the negotiation of relational boundaries and resilience. The third theme, “Reimagining and re-experiencing trauma,” focuses on participants’ exploration and reliving of trauma, and how group processes allowed for shared understanding and a reconstruing of their trauma. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

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Cultivating Compassion Focussed Practice for Those Who Have Committed Sexual Offences

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Compassion in custody: developing a trauma sensitive intervention for men with developmental disabilities who have convictions for sexual offending

Compassion in custody: developing a trauma sensitive intervention for men with developmental disabilities who have convictions for sexual offending

Hurt people hurt people: using a trauma sensitive and compassion focused approach to support people to understand and manage their criminogenic needs

“The People Who Leave Here Are Not the People Who Arrived.”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Therapeutic Process and Identity Transition in the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway

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