A balancing act: therapists' experience of working with sexual offenders

Abstract

This study uses grounded theory to investigate the experience of therapists who work with sexual offenders. The current literature outlines four main models that are commonly used to understand the impact of therapy on therapists. These are burnout, countertransference, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious traumatisation. However none of these models provides a totally satisfactory explanation for the experience of therapists who work with sexual offenders, although preliminary research from a range of studies has suggested that these four models may all be useful in part. The literature also recommends many different coping strategies for therapists, however these are not generally linked to the models of impact. This present study is based on in-depth interviews with seventeen therapists who work with sexual offenders from both community-based sex offender programmes and from the Department of Corrections in New Zealand. From a grounded-theory analysis of these interviews I have developed a model, which I have called the Balancing Act model that encapsulates the experience of these therapists. The Balancing Act model consists of five stages: Gaining Balance, Maintaining the Balance, Losing Balance, Regaining Balance and for those that leave the work, Stepping off the Balance. The Balancing Act model acknowledges that role of all four models of impact described in the literature. It suggests a relationship between the type of impact of working with sexual offenders and the coping strategies used and recommended by therapists in the sex offender treatment field. The Balancing Act model also acknowledges the ordinary ups and downs of being a therapist in the area of providing treatment to sexual offenders. This model is outlined in this thesis and then discussed with reference to the existing literature. Implications for agencies providing treatment to sex offenders are discussed and future directions for research are outlined.