ABSTRACT
The well-trained clinician will have several different types of therapy groups from which to choose. As treatment for sexual offenders became a growing possibility a number of decades ago, most groups were, by necessity, heterogeneous. Institutional programs vary from minimal “preparation for treatment”, often provided to offenders within six months of their release date, to full-blown cognitive/behavioral programs almost equaling those provided in an outpatient setting. Nonetheless, the majority of offenders in a treatment program are on the streets of communities, though most often, fortunately, under a parole or probation officer’s supervision and, in a treatment program. The cognitive approaches to treatment of the sexual offender have a long and honorable history. They comprise verbal and thought techniques and can also border on experiential approaches. The technique of defining and intervening in a chain of offending behaviors merges imperceptibly with the theory and therapy of relapse prevention.
