Hi Joe,

in the past in my pre training days I didnt use FAP. Ive only come across FAP
while Ive been training, though not through my course teaching unfortunately.
With this group Ive only begum to really think about FAP in the last couple of
months since I started this training placement.

I do try to keep a keen eye on the CRBs when doing work with sex offenders.
I suppose CRB1s could be client assertions that they couldnt control their
behaviour, that children iniate sex, women 'ask for it' etc.

CRb2s being small changes in these verbal behaviours or increases in their
talking about their sexual offending (this type of client can be very
avoidant)

CRB3s could be client explainations of their own sexual behaviour in terms of
making links between antecededents, their behaviours and the consequences -
helping clients understand their offence cycle is an important aspect of this
work and i think that doing so parallels CRB3 in alot of ways

from the 5 rules point of view, maybe the following would apply.
1: watch for the client avoiding or changing the subject off their offending or
for instances of the client giving alternative explanations.

2: use direct or socratic questionning or reflections to get the client to talk
about their offending, its effects on self and others. dont be shy to reflect
your own feelings about the client and what they have done when this could be
benefical.

3: when clients do begin to avoid less or change their 'cogbnitive distortions'
sieze the day so to speak and follow it up. even if it was not what was being
discussed. this is an occasion when what appears to be a CRB1 (avoidance of the
current topic ) is actually a CRB2 (increased in offence focused behaviour)

4: notice how your behaviour and feedback/reflections effects the clients
behaviour in terms of decreasing CRB1s and incrreasing CRB2s and 3s. Try to
keep this as natural as possible. try not to react with revulsion- im sure the
client has an army of people who can do this for him with comming to me for it.
but as well dont patronise him either. just notice what seems to effect the
CRBs and try to adjust therapeutic behaviour accordingly.

5: reflect and feedback the contingencies to the client regarding the offence
cycle as you see it, and also with regards to any behaviours which feeds into
it. for example drinking or 'feeling bad'. helping the client see the many
'seemingly irrevelant decisions' they have made in the led up to their offence
and the factors that influenced these decisions may help the cleint engage in
CRB3

these are just some ideas i would have about how to keep FAP in mind in this
sort of work. I thinks its probably more similar to Functionally Inhanced CBT
rather than 'pure-FAP'. I think there is probably some room for ACT/FACT
technology in here as well, especially in dealing with unwanted (or potentially
wanted) or intrusive thoughts about sex with children or rape fantasies.

essentially I think that while EST with sex offender treatment are still
primarily CBT in nature, there always have been and always will be a place for
functional anaylisis in understanding and changing sexual offending behaviour.


within the treatment itself, I beleive that FAP offers a coherent and
empirically valid framework to understand the client and to use the therapeutic
context as a means of helping the client to move forward. While my ideas above,
do not differ a great deal from traditional CBT approaches I think a FAP frame
works helps me maximise the approach and helps me respond to clients in a more
effective way especially whenever the clients agenda steps outside the
treatment manual (and lets face it, when does therapy ever match 100% onto the
manual!)

hope that was somewhat informitve. Its just some of my thoughts on how ive been
trying to assimilate FAP ideas into my work in this area. IF anyone else has
been doing FAP in this area Id love to hear from them as well


best wishes
Aidan

> Hello Aidan,
>
> Do you get to use FAP in your work with sex offenders. If so
> I would love to hear about it. Many of my students are
> interested working with Criminal Justice populations. The
> behavior analysis program at St. Joe's is a subtrack of 10
> courses in the criminal justice program.
>
> Joe
>