Exploring Client and Therapist Experiences of Sexual Offender Intervention: Developing a Model of "Significant Events".

This research explored the therapeutic events both clients and therapists from community-based treatment interventions for perpetrators of sexual abuse identify as significant in their experience of psychological therapy. A qualitative design was utilized to address this research objective. The sample for the present research is comprised of three different treatment programs for sexual offending. Twenty-five clients and nine therapists participated in the study. Two qualitative measures were used to elicit client and therapist responses. Significant Aspects of Therapy Form was administered every second treatment session during each intervention program. The Significant Aspects Follow-Up Interview was conducted with a sub-sample of participants at the conclusion of each treatment module. Thematic analysis was used to identify significant themes noted by clients and therapists from forms and interviews. Thematic analysis resulted in a model of significant events in therapy. In this model, significant events were categorized into six domains. The six domains were as follows: (a) the process of therapy, (b) making changes and progress in therapy, (c) content and structure of therapy, (d) therapist contributions, (e) negative contributions to therapy, and (f) other factors Each domain further contained between 6 and 18 themes, which are also reported. This study found much overlap and similarity in the experiences of therapy between clients of sexual offender therapy and general psychotherapy. Furthermore, there is overlap between therapists and clients in the aspects of therapy they identify as significant. The implications of these findings on effective service development and comprehensive service evaluations are discussed.