Myth: “Once A Perpetrator of CSA, Always A Perpetrator” - Does Treatment Work?
Tracks
Stream 1
| Friday, July 26, 2024 |
| 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM |
| Conference Centre Rooms 1 &2 |
Overview
30 Minute Presentation
Presenter
Mrs Monica Macoun
Let’s Talk Counselling And Psychological Services
Myth: “Once A Perpetrator of CSA, Always A Perpetrator” -Does Treatment Work?
Abstract
Dealing with issues related to child sexual abuse is rarely covered in University Psychology courses, and yet it would be rare for a psychologist to not come across a client who has been harmed sexually as a child. This pervasive problem – and solutions to breaking the cycle of child sexual abuse need to be addressed. This presentation aims to educate and inform based on the presenter's 17 years of experience working in this field.
There appears to be a general perception in the public that anyone who has offended sexually against a child is a paedophile and will persist in their offending behaviours and is untreatable. This leads to the sole focus on punishment - ‘lock them up and throw away the key.’ Is that perception helpful or even accurate?
Based on her professional experience of working with those who have offended sexually against children in a community-based treatment program and also her personal experience of intra familial sexual abuse Monica explores these issues. Having commenced as a Master’s psychology student in the SafeCare program in 2006, Monica now facilitates treatment programs for sexual offenders against children and Child Exploitation Material offending and is part of the team providing training for professionals in the treatment of child sexual abuse offending.
This presentation considers a different option to incarceration and what might be the benefits of such an alternative approach. In addition, Monica explores the importance of supporting family members of those who have offended and will discuss her involvement in co-facilitating a women’s support group.
There appears to be a general perception in the public that anyone who has offended sexually against a child is a paedophile and will persist in their offending behaviours and is untreatable. This leads to the sole focus on punishment - ‘lock them up and throw away the key.’ Is that perception helpful or even accurate?
Based on her professional experience of working with those who have offended sexually against children in a community-based treatment program and also her personal experience of intra familial sexual abuse Monica explores these issues. Having commenced as a Master’s psychology student in the SafeCare program in 2006, Monica now facilitates treatment programs for sexual offenders against children and Child Exploitation Material offending and is part of the team providing training for professionals in the treatment of child sexual abuse offending.
This presentation considers a different option to incarceration and what might be the benefits of such an alternative approach. In addition, Monica explores the importance of supporting family members of those who have offended and will discuss her involvement in co-facilitating a women’s support group.
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Monica is a Counselling Psychologist with more than 25 years’ experience. She has worked as Clinical Lead for Road Trauma, WA and Telethon Speech and Hearing and has also worked for Safecare - an agency that specialised in treatment and support when intra-familial sexual abuse has occurred. In her Private Practice she co-facilitates a community-based group treatment program for child sexual offending and internet pornography, and also a support group for women partners of offenders. She is the Convenor of the Australian Psychological Society’s Child Sexual Abuse Special Interest Group, a faculty member of the Australian Training Institute for Child Sexual Abuse Treatment (ATICSAT) and a Fellow of the APS’s College of Counselling Psychologists. She is an experienced practitioner in the areas of trauma and sexual abuse and author of “You, Me and a Cup of Tea- Breaking the cycle of child sexual abuse.”
