The masters and johnson treatment program for sex offenders: Intimacy, empathy and trauma resolution.

Anger Management

April 2021

Full Citation

Schwartz, M. (1994). The masters and johnson treatment program for sex offenders: Intimacy, empathy and trauma resolution. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 1(3), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/10720169408400047

Abstract

Most contemporary treatment programs rely heavily on the cognitive-behavioral approaches to sexual compulsivity, focusing on the premise that paraphilias such as voyeurism or exhibitionism stem from the learning, conditioning and reinforcing nature of orgasm. For this reason, many cognitive behaviorists have focused treatment almost exclusively on corrective conditioning to increase nondeviant and decrease deviant sexual arousal, as well as using skills approaches to improve social interaction, anger management and assertiveness, empathy, relapse prevention, and sexual information skills. Such approaches have demonstrable effectiveness with a high percentage of individuals and are critical in rehabilitation of the sex offender. However, the author argues that therapeutic programs, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness, meed to move beyond mechanistic reductionism. The author suggests an integrated approach to the sex offender, focusing on the following aspects of treatment: renunciation of denial and other defensive maneuvers; restructuring of cognitive distortions typical of sex offenders, development of intimacy skills and empathy; making amends to those damaged directly or indirectly by destructive behavior; techniques for relapse prevention; and trauma resolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)