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THE GUILFORD PRESS
CBT WITH JUSTICE-INVOLVED CLIENTS
TREATMENT PLANS AND INTERVENTIONS
FOR EVIDENCE‑BASED PSYCHOTHERAPY
Robert L. Leahy, Series Editor
www.guilford.com/TPI
Each volume in this practical series synthesizes current information on a particular disor-
der or clinical population; shows practitioners how to develop specific, tailored treatment
plans; and describes interventions proven to promote behavior change, reduce distress,
and alleviate symptoms. Step-by-step guidelines for planning and implementing treat-
ment are illustrated with rich case examples. User-friendly features include reproducible
self-report forms, handouts, and symptom checklists, all in a convenient large-size format.
Specific strategies for handling treatment roadblocks are also detailed. Emphasizing a col-
laborative approach to treatment, books in this series enable practitioners to offer their
clients the very best in evidence-based practice.
TREATMENT PLANS AND INTERVENTIONS
FOR DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY DISORDERS, SECOND EDITION
Robert L. Leahy, Stephen J. F. Holland, and Lata K. McGinn
TREATMENT PLANS AND INTERVENTIONS
FOR BULIMIA AND BINGE-EATING DISORDER
Rene D. Zweig and Robert L. Leahy
TREATMENT PLANS AND INTERVENTIONS
FOR INSOMNIA: A CASE FORMULATION APPROACH
Rachel Manber and Colleen E. Carney
TREATMENT PLANS AND INTERVENTIONS
FOR OBSESSIVE–COMPULSIVE DISORDER
Simon A. Rego
CBT WITH JUSTICE-INVOLVED CLIENTS:
INTERVENTIONS FOR ANTISOCIAL AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIORS
Raymond Chip Tafrate, Damon Mitchell, and David J. Simourd
CBT with
Justice‑Involved Clients
Interventions for Antisocial
and Self-Destructive Behaviors
Raymond Chip Tafrate
Damon Mitchell
David J. Simourd
THE GUILFORD PRESS
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Copyright © 2018 The Guilford Press
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All rights reserved
Except as indicated, no part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval
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Printed in the United States of America
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Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
LIMITED DUPLICATION LICENSE
These materials are intended for use only by qualified mental health and criminal justice
professionals.
The publisher grants to individual purchasers of this book nonassignable permission to
reproduce all materials for which permission is specifically granted in a footnote. This
license is limited to you, the individual purchaser, for personal use or use with clients.
This license does not grant the right to reproduce these materials for resale, redistribution,
electronic display, or any other purposes (including but not limited to books, pamphlets,
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handouts or slides for lectures, workshops, or webinars, whether or not a fee is charged).
Permission to reproduce these materials for these and any other purposes must be obtained
in writing from the Permissions Department of Guilford Publications.
The authors have checked with sources believed to be reliable in their efforts to provide
information that is complete and generally in accord with the standards of practice that are
accepted at the time of publication. However, in view of the possibility of human error or
changes in behavioral, mental health, or medical sciences, neither the authors, nor the editor
and publisher, nor any other party who has been involved in the preparation or publication
of this work warrants that the information contained herein is in every respect accurate or
complete, and they are not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from
the use of such information. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained in
this book with other sources.
All case material is a composite of multiple individuals whose identities have been disguised and
fictionalized.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tafrate, Raymond Chip, author. | Mitchell, Damon, 1969– author. | Simourd, David J.,
author.
Title: CBT with justice-involved clients : interventions for antisocial and self-destructive
behaviors / Raymond Chip Tafrate, Damon Mitchell, and David J. Simourd.
Description: New York, NY : The Guilford Press, [2018] | Series: Treatment plans and
interventions for evidence-based psychotherapy | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018011238| ISBN 9781462534920 (hardback) | ISBN 9781462534906
(paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Criminals—Mental health—Case studies. | Criminals—Rehabilitation—Case
studies. | Forensic psychology—Case studies. | BISAC: PSYCHOLOGY / Forensic
Psychology. | MEDICAL / Psychiatry / General. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Social Work.
Classification: LCC RC451.4.P68 T34 2018 | DDC 616.89/142086927—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011238
To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want
of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education
has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that
one’s education is complete.
—Attributed to epictetus (55–135 C.E.)
About the Authors
Raymond Chip Tafrate, PhD, a clinical psychologist, is Professor of Criminology and Criminal
Justice at Central Connecticut State University. He co- chairs the Forensic Issues and External-
izing Behaviors special interest group for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies,
is a Fellow and Supervisor at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York City, and is a member of
the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. Dr. Tafrate frequently consults with criminal
justice agencies regarding difficult- to- change problems such as anger dysregulation and criminal
behavior. He has presented his research throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia,
and has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books.
Damon Mitchell, PhD, a clinical psychologist, is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Jus-
tice at Central Connecticut State University. As a criminal justice consultant, Dr. Mitchell has
developed and delivered training workshops related to forensic assessment and treatment and has
conducted evaluations of criminal justice programs. He has published numerous journal articles
and book chapters as well as a coedited book.
David J. Simourd, PhD, CPsych, is in private practice in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and has
been involved in forensic psychological assessment and treatment since 1992. In addition to his
clinical work, Dr. Simourd has published articles, delivered training workshops, and served as
a consultant on offender assessment and treatment to a variety of correctional organizations
throughout North America, Asia, and the Caribbean. He is on the editorial board of Criminal
Justice and Behavior and is a member of the Ontario Review Board, the civil commitment board
for mentally disordered offenders in Ontario.
vi
Preface
This treatment planner is designed as a practical resource providing structure, guidance, and
skills for working effectively with justice- involved clients (JICs). Since we recognize the
immense variability within this clinical group, and the breadth of environments where treat-
ment is delivered, a manualized session- by- session program seems unrealistic. Rather, this treat-
ment planner is organized around broad phases of the treatment process that will be applicable to
working with JICs across a wide range of forensic settings.
This is not the kind of book to read from cover to cover in one sitting. Also, just reading the
material will not be enough for you to become proficient in working with this population. It is
essential to try the skills described in this treatment planner in your clinical work and observe how
JICs respond. Flexibility will also be important, as you will have to make decisions about which
sections and chapters are most relevant for a particular case. We recommend that you review one
chapter at a time while thoughtfully transferring the knowledge and skills to real-world sessions.
The hope is that with practice and repetition, the material contained within this treatment plan-
ner will come alive in your day-to-day practice.
ORGANIZATION AND FEATURES OF THIS PLANNER
This treatment planner is organized into six parts. Part I, Forensic Basics (Chapters 1 and 2),
provides an essential foundation of knowledge for applying the skills described throughout the
subsequent sections of the planner. Part II, Engagement (Chapters 3 and 4), presents strategies for
successfully engaging JICs in treatment and fostering their internal motivation for making changes
in life domains most linked to criminal behavior. Part III, Assessment, Case Formulation, and
Focus (Chapters 5, 6, and 7), offers guidelines for assessment, case formulation, and establishing
collaborative treatment goals. The chapters in Part IV, Detailed Treatment Plans for Criminogenic
Thinking and Antisocial Orientation (Chapters 8 and 9), describe specific interventions designed
to restructure JICs’ antisocial attitudes and improve their decision making. Part V, Detailed Treat-
ment Plans for Harmful Lifestyle Patterns (Chapters 10, 11, and 12), emphasizes specific behav-
ioral interventions for helping JICs alter their routines, relationships, and destructive habits (e.g.,
substance use and anger dysregulation). Finally, Part VI, Practice Management (Chapter 13), out-
vii
viii Preface
lines a model for report writing and documenting treatment progress. The book concludes with a
brief Postscript, two Appendices, and a References list.
In many chapters, you will find guidelines, scripts, and forms to help you utilize the specific
skills presented and discussed. All scripts and forms are provided at the ends of their correspond-
ing chapters. The scripts suggest specific wording for you to try when working with JICs. We have
found in our own clinical work, and through research and consulting with practitioners across
a variety of criminal justice agencies and programs, that a critical but often overlooked skill set
is the ability to launch into productive conversations. The scripts help you introduce difficult-
to-talk-about topics in a way that is beneficial to JICs. They also provide a structure for keeping
conversations focused and efficient, which may be of particular concern if you are conducting brief
supervision sessions in probation and parole contexts. You are more likely to experience immedi-
ate success with the proposed skills when sticking to the scripts. Finally, because you will go into
interactions with a game plan for how to structure your discussions of treatment, you will have
greater freedom to focus your attention on JICs’ reactions.
A disadvantage of using scripts is that at first they can feel clunky and unnatural, because
they are not your own words. It is important to try to deliver the scripted material in a way that
is as natural as possible; just reading the words in a robotic fashion is unlikely to produce positive
outcomes. Also, being too bound to the scripts can result in a loss of flexibility in conversations
—flexibility that is often useful in real-world treatment. The scripts provided in this treatment
planner are best viewed as starting points for conversations. In many cases, you will have to fill in
the gaps in order to move conversations forward. Nonetheless, we recommend staying as close as
possible to the wording as you begin to learn these scripts. With practice and repetition, the skills
will begin to feel more natural. Of course, the goal is not to have you forever reading from scripts;
rather, it is to allow you to become fluent enough with the skills that you develop a foundational
competence. Once that competence is reached, you can feel free to put the scripts away, become
more flexible with the material, and create variations of your own that work best for your JICs’
needs. In that sense, scripts are a bit like training wheels on a bicycle.
At its heart, this is a “how-to” book about clinical assessment and treatment, with greater
emphasis placed on treatment. A predominant theme of this book is the notion that treatment is
driven by high- quality assessment. The guidelines for assessment and case formulation presented
in this treatment planner are offered as clinical procedures for identifying the most relevant treat-
ment targets for individual JICs. This is not a book about how to conduct risk assessment per se.
The general topic of risk assessment is a specialty area with its own unique terminology and prac-
tices. A specific feature of risk assessment is the prediction of outcomes (e.g., reoffending) through
using probability estimates. Our assessment guidelines are not recommended for making statistical
estimates regarding probabilities of future criminal behavior. Nonetheless, we refer to materials to
consider for conducting risk assessment, and we suggest ways to integrate information obtained
from validated risk instruments into treatment planning.
LABELS AND LANGUAGE
There are too many terms commonly used to describe people receiving services in criminal justice
settings: offender, juvenile delinquent, probationer, parolee, prisoner, inmate, court- mandated client, and
