Treating the Troubled Family by Nathan W. Ackerman

Abstract

Group therapy is a widely accepted model of care for sex offenders. However, most group therapy takes place in prison utilizing a cognitive-behavioral, psychoeducational model of care. Given that over 250,000 sex offenders are in ambulatory treatment, newer models of care may need to be employed to address their specific needs. I present a naturalistic outpatient study involving my private practice of 109 consecutive sex offenders treated over a 10-year period. A multimodal model of care informed by psychodynamic theory is presented with detailed case material from one group session. Preliminary results of recidivism are presented.