Importance of having a female cotherapist in a child molesters' group.

Abstract

Including a female cotherapist in a group of child molesters can assist in generating valuable transference issues, as well as modeling appropriate social interactions between men and women. The benefits and frustrations of being a female cotherapist in a group of child molesters are examined. The significance of the interaction between the male and female cotherapists is discussed. Case examples are used to illustrate these points.Recently there has been a great interest in the problem of sexual abuse of children by adults. Current statistics suggest that the prevalence of sexual abuse in nonclinical populations ranges from 7.7% to 38% (Salter, 1988). Salter contended that higher rates may be reported in clinical populations because of the nature of the problems associated with sexual abuse. However, given these statistics, one can estimate that 8%-38% of men and women in this country have been sexually abused. It seems reasonable to assume that these figures may be lower than would be expected in a clinical population. Child molestation seems to be the most prevalent of the sexual crimes and, given the nature of the crime, the most traumatic. As a result, professionals are beginning to focus more attention on the assessment and treatment of child molesters. The most common deterrent for a sexual crime has traditionally been incarceration. However, professionals are beginning to question the therapeutic value of incarceration and are becoming more optimistic that these offenders can be rehabilitated (Abel, Mittelman, & Becker, 1985).Treatment providers have many opinions regarding the most effective treatment approach for child molesters. Group psychotherapy is one of the chosen forms of treatment for child molesters. There is some agreement in the field that group therapy provides the child molester with a therapeutic environment in which to work effectively on various issues, whereas individual therapy used alone would be ineffective (Knopp, 1984). We examine the importance of having a woman as a cotherapist in a group therapy setting for child molesters, and we also address the benefits and frustrations for both therapists. To illustrate our discussion, we use case examples from a child molesters' group.

Group Coleadership: A Critical Review

“…It has been used with psychiatric inpatients (C. O. Levine & Dang, 1984), latency-age boys (Fineberg, 1986), child molesters (Pietz & Mann, 1989), men diagnosed with AIDS (Gabriel, 1993), adult survivors of sexual abuse (Roesler & Lillie, 1995), individuals with self-object needs (Livingston, 2001), bereaved parents (R. Friedman & Handel, 2002), male spouse abusers (Nosko, 2002), couples (Laub & Hoffman, 2002), college students (Berger, 2002), "stuck cases" (Odell, 2003), encopretic and selectively mute children (S. Hoffman & Laub, 2004), and couples and families (Izardi & Slavik, 2005). Although the majority of these writings lie outside of counselor education, they address many advantages and disadvantages of using coleaders that apply to counselor education as well.…”