Key Aspects of Psychological Change in Residents of a Prison Therapeutic Community: A Focus Group Approach.

Group/Peer Support

May 2021

Full Citation

Miller, S., Sees, C., & Brown, J. (2006). Key Aspects of Psychological Change in Residents of a Prison Therapeutic Community: A Focus Group Approach. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 45(2), 116-128. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.2006.00409.x

Abstract

In an attempt to gain a person-centred perspective of therapeutic change, exploratory focus groups were conducted with men in Dovegate Prison's Therapeutic Community (TC). Residents identified change as a process comprising variability, gradual movement and differential paces. The process was seen to involve self-referential properties, interpersonal facets and challenges. Residents distinguished two significant change events: identifying aspects of the unknown and openness to receive help. Support is given to focus group methodology as a way of offering novel insights into experience of a TC as a process-orientated model of change, taking into account individual aspects and underlying facets of change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)