INTRODUCTION SPECIALIZED TRAINING VCPA
I.VICTIMS
The aim of these training courses is to form, on the widest possible scale, a solid, highly professional and effective network of people in all sectors (caretakers, psychiatry, police departments, magistracy …) who can immediately start to repair and heal victims of sexual violence and stopping the perpetrators on their destructive path.
At first we’ll take care of the children because they are the future of tomorrow and we must at all costs avoid that new perpetrators arise from the victims. Research in the U.S. shows that between 7 and 10% of male victims later become perpetrators themselves. But it is not only for this reason that it is extremely important to recover victims as soon as possible. The vast majority of victims of sexual violence suffer from it for a lifetime. The social consequences are often incalculable: people who end up in crime, in the drug world, in prostitution, becoming addicted to alcohol, struggle with depression, self-harm, develop eating problems, spend years in psychiatry, become or attract violent partners,… the list is endless.
Without specialized therapy, their development potential is compromised because they have to spend most of their energy and time on survival. Extensive studies from this disaster are available.
The results of massive sexual abuse in Churches have been made public worldwide, and there have been parliamentary committees on this drama in many countries. Reports were also written about it. However, the victims were not believed for decades. The perpetrators were able to continue their devastating crimes undisturbed. The children at the time dared not speak, and if they did, they were not even heard. The courageous testimonies now also clearly show the heavy burden these adults have been carrying since childhood. A burden that has also determined and still determines their whole life and their lifeline. But also from their partners, their family and their entire social life. All of these people are entitled to vigorous therapy to restore them from the trauma suffered.
Abused Little Boys, Neglected Men & Hurt Little Girls, Insecure Women
It is a delusion to say that victims of sexual violence will continue to suffer from this throughout their lives. It is known that there are countless victims who have been in treatment for decades. This is a very wrong signal sent to them, but also to their environment, that continues to stigmatize them as victims. A person is much more than just an abused child, a victim.
The courses of the V & CPA – Victim & Criminal Profiling Academy – explain how to restore and heal victims within two years (maximum) so they can finally get back to life. Or can finally start their life.
With the workbook: Abused Little Boys, Neglected Men, as a professional, you can immediately start working with male victims. The victim gets to know himself for the first time on the basis of a thorough explanation and tasks that can be performed by the victim. He is assisted by you as a therapist.
With the workbook: Hurt Little Girls, Insecure Women as a professional, you can immediately start working with female victims.
For both works, there are modules that must be followed to get a complete overview of what a victim is, what the consequences are, and how to deal with them.
Figures on child sexual abuse are grossly underestimated worldwide. Most countries report 25%. However, studies in the U.S. and England speak of 33%. In all likelihood, this figure is even higher. This is dramatic and we urgently need to intervene to stop it. Because every person is important and valuable.
II. SEX OFFENDERS
But not only victims need to be restored humanely and professionally. Perpetrators abuse on average between 100 and 150 victims in their sexually active period (between 15 and 70 years). It is pointless to focus only on victims while the perpetrators can continue to carry their crimes with impunity. It is therefore important to tackle perpetrators of sexual violence as adequately and as quickly as possible in thorough and highly specialized therapies where the primary focus is on the prevention of recidivism, but also on recovery of the victim and in a broader context: the whole society.
To do this, it is extremely important to make perpetrators aware of what empathy and compassion is, how to stop abusing, who they are, why they are undergoing therapy, why they relapse again, anger management,…
Most perpetrators don’t know who they are at all. This is partly due to their own childhood abuse, but also to one or more of the five main categories of child abuse in childhood:
- Emotional abuse
- Psychological abuse
- Physical abuse
- Alcohol and/or drug addiction of one or both parents
- Sexual abuse
Research has shown that children who have been victims of at least three out of the five categories are at high risk of suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome on long term. These problems are also addressed in the treatment.
Overview Modules
Module 1
Ready to Work with Sex Offenders? Be trained!
For people who feel they have or want to do something to stop the violence committed on children as well as adults, training is foreseen to obtain the necessary skills to start working with sex offenders.
It has to be said that the actual educations or training at universities are absolutely not effective or adequate enough to work and heal as well as victims as sex offenders.
You, therefore, need to expand your field and educate yourself at the highest level. We are talking about the safety of children and other targeted victims. It must be clear by now that the lack of serious results is shameful. Never before humans have been more victim to this kind of crime.
Time to take this in our own hands. With first and for all Humanity, Patience, Clarity, Truth, Perseverance, Objectivity, Honesty, Strength, Tirelessness, High-Performance Skills, and Staying focused on safety for our Society.
This book gives you a perfect idea of how to become a very skilled therapist to work with sex offenders. In this module, you will be guided through the skills needed to work with this kind of offender. Never ever judge the person. You can judge his criminal behavior, but never who he is.
Certificates will be provided after each module, together with the workbooks. When all modules have been worked through, a diploma will be provided to start working with offenders.
Module 2
Abused Little Boys, Neglected Men
This workbook is for men, survivors of childhood trauma. This year, like every year, hundreds of thousands of little boys will be sexually assaulted in the United States, in Europe and around the world. They will be hurt physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Every aspect of their life will suffer from this. The same goes for women, of course. For them I prepared the book: Hurt Little Girls, Insecure Women.
He is a wounded man. Maybe without him knowing, he suffers from the effects of different forms of abuse in his childhood. Maybe also of sexual abuse. In this module we explain how you as a professional can help the victim going through the workbook were you will take him by the hand and work around the use of Language in this taboo subject, about where he is now in his life, about Who he really is but also about understanding what sexual abuse is and what the impact can be on his daily life.
There are indeed different kinds of abuse. And there also are misconceptions about child sexual abuse. It is important for the victim to bring clarity in all this.
He can go through this workbook all by himself. But he can also ask some support from a good friend, a family member, a priest, a teacher, a human professional to get through all the subjects handled in this workbook. Both women and men are and have been abused as children and it is only men and women who can build a safer world for children from a healed position. Therefore it is advisable to be guided by a skilled professional to help the victim go through sometimes rough times while he is working this out.
The united forces of both is indispensable to finally put an end to the epidemic forms of child sexual abuse. Maybe his wife or his partner has also been a victim and nobody knows about it. In Module 2 we explain how to work with Female victims of child abuse.
When you finished this module, you will be provided with the workbook and a certificate of attending. After having finished all modules a Diploma will be delivered.
Module 3
Hurt Little Girls, Insecure Women
This year, like every year, hundreds of thousands of girls will be sexually assaulted in the United States, in Europe and around the world. They will be hurt physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Every aspect of their life will suffer from this. The same goes for men, of course. Here we will work with a hurt woman. Maybe without her knowing, she suffers from the effects of different forms of abuse in her childhood. Maybe also of sexual abuse. In this module 2, we will take you by the hand to help the female victim how to work around the use of language in this taboo subject, about where she is now in her life, about why she feels depressed or angry all the time, why she is auto mutilating, why she has so many issues in relations with men or women, who she actually is, what her dreams were and if she was able to live her dreams or why not?…
As a human professional you have to be able to talk about sexual subject without restrictions or fear. Some of you might have been victim of sexual abuse yourself. It is advisable to work on this before. For your own safety and security. It is not a good idea to be confronted with the pain and despair of victims when you haven’t dealt with your past first. This does not mean you as a preparing therapist are unable to work with victims or offenders. Not at all, but I advise you to first work on this accompanying workbook yourself so you be healed and prepared to work with victims.
When you finished this module, you will be provided with the workbook and a certificate of attending. After having finished all modules a Diploma will be delivered.
Module 4
Back on the Tracks!
The best therapists for children are their own parents. It can also be a family member or a friend. Someone who cares about the child and wants to free it from the fear, confusion and disgust. Outsiders can respond perfectly to this. It is important to get all these victims out of their isolation. Whether they are still children or eighty years old. Finally being understood is so unimaginably important for victims to finally feel free and relieved.
This module works around the workbook intended for boys from the age of seven. Little victims of sexual violence, locked in the dark. This book helps them get out. It is recommended that the child be assisted by a skilled and humanistic professional in processing through this book. But the child can also handle it alone if necessary.
The consequences of abuse can be unimaginable. The potential of 33% of people has been compromised in some way. That’s because children who fell victim to such unwanted touches and violence can create a very negative self-image. Their creativity is compromised because they no longer believe in themselves. They don’t trust themselves anymore and they have a very difficult time to trust even adults. They feel dirty, used, less than nothing. Many victims are confused and have nowhere to go with these feelings. Some victims will never talk about it because they feel guilty about the abuse. That is one of the techniques perpetrators apply: to blame the victim. This is called “projection”. And you don’t talk about your guilt, you carry it. Can we be amazed at the fact that so many adults are broken?
This module teaches you how to handle and guide little boys, victim of sexual abuse.
There will soon be a workbook for little girls too. We can keep you informed about this if you leave us your email on www.TimeToTalkAboutit.org
When you finished this module, you will be provided with the workbook and a certificate of attending. After having finished all modules a Diploma will be delivered.
Working with sex offenders is a challenge. A serious challenge. But… very, very rewarding!
It are the most manipulating people in the world. This because it has become a way of surviving in the turmoil they have been raised as children. In short: they stopped developing and growing up emotionally between the age of 4 and 7. These are very important observations I made in over 30 years working with them. You will not find these observations anywhere.
To be in balance, we as humans have to balance the flow between ‘rational thinking’, ‘feeling’ and ‘sexuality’. One can compare it with a snowman: three ball on top of each other. The top ball represents the ‘rational thinking’, the middle one ‘the feelings (so empathy)’ and the ground ball represents ‘sexuality’.
For reasons we have to find out during therapy, the middle ball has been destroyed or damaged. So the energy isn’t flowing as it should be. In this module, we will look what those reasons could be and how we can restore the damage. Once you know what it is and how to work on it, it is quite easy to do so.
But again: don’t you ever get trapped in the charms and manipulations those people use to hide away in the dark. And never believe a sex offender when he says he will never do it again! Without this very high skilled training, where you will understand how he thinks and works, I can assure you he will do it again. Therefore it is imperative to work with a Contract of Non-Confidentiality with sex offenders. This will be explained in the module.
But mind you: be as likable as you can be while working with sex offenders. Not seducing, not aggressive, not sexy (surely not!), not naïve…and don’t ever judge them as a human being. Judge their crimes but not the person.
So let’s start the training to work with sex offenders!
Module 5
Who am I and why am I here?
This module is meant for professionals working with sex offenders. Although many sex offenders have been victims of various types of abuse themselves, it cannot be an excuse to sexual assault other people.
‘Who am I and why am I here?’ will guide the professional through the process of treatment of sex offenders. It is the first workbook in a series of successive professional workbooks.
Abuse is a very serious problem in our society and it comes in many forms.
For the purpose of this workbook, we are going to use the word abuse as:
Actions or behaviors (including neglect) that result in physical, mental, or emotional damage. This definition also includes illegal sexual acts that lead to temporary or permanent emotional, psychological or physical consequences.
The most common forms of child abuse include hitting and torture (physical abuse), heavy child labor (physical and emotional abuse), not providing adequate medical care for the child, no food or clothing (neglect), constantly inflicting criticism and mental torture on the child (mental abuse), indecent exposure of sex to children or through sexual activity or by showing sexual material to children (sexual abuse), over-disciplining children (physical, emotional and mental abuse).
Child abuse is violence against children. It is often much worse than street violence about which people sometimes hear or read in the media. It happens secretly, can last for years and affects the most defenseless parts of our entire society. Abuse is a huge problem in our society because the consequences often last a lifetime and recovery is difficult.
If you have been abused you will notice that this chapter will focus on initial steps you can take to recover from childhood abuse. All these examples simply show how children are abused. In later modules, we go over to the even more violent crimes against children.
Never ever judge the person. You can judge his criminal behavior, but never who he is.
When you finished this module, you will be provided with the workbook and a certificate of attending. After having finished all modules a Diploma will be delivered.
Module 6
Empathy and Sympathy
Empathy, Compassion and Sympathy for others can be learned. Even if the abuser caused others serious suffering, both physical and/or emotionally. These skills make the world complete. We are all connected, if we want it or not. So, we need to take care of each other.
Empathy is a skill that is learned when we are young. We learn to connect to others, to their joy, their happiness but also their pain and needs.
For some reason, sex offenders haven’t been taught how to connect to others. Or maybe he was a very empathic person, but someone he trusted has scattered this. But HE, and Only HE, has the power to re-connect to the world and feel the joy to be part of it.
To be one of the wholes where people are concerned about him, and him being involved in everything, maybe for the first time of his life. This is what makes people, HIM, happy with his life, and with others. Sure he can do this.
He deserves it. So, let’s go and work on this together! That must be the fire in you as a skilled and humanistic therapist. This module will teach you how to do this. It is hard work to install empathy and compassion in a sex offender, but it is also very rewarding to see the evolution through hard work. And remember: you are saving children with this!
Never ever judge the person. You can judge his criminal behavior, but never who he is.
When you finished this module, you will be provided with the workbook and a certificate of attending. After having finished all modules a Diploma will be delivered.
Module 7
Why did I do it again?
In this module we’ll teach you how to understand the Cycle of Abuse and why sex offenders relapse so often. It has to be said: child sex offenders are amongst the criminals with the highest rates of relapse. 97 % of them relapse within a time lapse of – in average -… 4 days after leaving prison. Why is this the case? Because this kind of criminals easily says:
“I paid my invoice. Now I’m free to do what I want.”
He has had no specialized treatment or no treatment at all. He has not been challenged in his behavior, let alone in his feelings and thinking methods. So, why would he change?
It is up to us to guide this offenders towards a healthy and decent citizens to keep society safe. Without any professional help, those people will never change. They just cannot. They don’t see the problem. At all. It is society that has a problem, not him.
The US President signed an act to prevent this kind of crime: In December, President Trump signed the First Step Act into law. The bipartisan legislation was the first major reform to the federal criminal justice system in 30 years. The new law aims to reduce recidivism and lessen some mandatory minimum sentences.
Last week the President announced a follow-up effort: the Second Step Act. Former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman worked closely with members of Congress and Presidential advisors to draft the First Step Act. He worked with the Trump Administration and members of Congress to pass criminal justice reform legislation in 2018. While the First Step Act focused efforts on pre-release outreach, the Second Step Act will aim to help former inmates find jobs and housing following their release from prison.
When you finished this module, you will be provided with the workbook and a certificate of attending. After having finished all modules a Diploma will be delivered.
The therapies are highly interactive and humane between the professional and the perpetrator. And although a contract of non-confidentiality is established between the perpetrators and the therapist (this is discussed further in module II), above all there must be a bond of unshakable trust between therapist and perpetrator. Tasks must be completed every week and discussed in the next therapeutic session. Offenders can be followed up on an outpatient basis or in a closed setting.
The aim of the course is to cover as complete a work area as possible. Each module is set up in such a way that you can immediately start working with it in practice. There are 13 modules in total, but more are added regularly.
Module 8
How can I stop?
This module contains the workbook “How can I Stop? Breaking My Different Circles.” These workbooks are designed to help and guide people through their sexuality and through aggression issues
The first steps are described in detail in “Who am I and why am I here?”, followed by “Empathy and Sympathy” and “Why did I do it again?” These workbooks are solid building blocks and foundations with which you can start to break down and rebuild your client’s deviant sexual behaviors.
Module 9
Evaluating Sexual Offenders
This Module is about Evaluating Sexual Offenders. Profiling them and stopping them from abusing.
“I studied Criminology but was taught anything like this. I would love to learn from Carine and the courses at the VCPA. It is so interesting.” S.H.T – Student
Indeed, non of the material the Academy teaches, is taught at the official universities or high schools. In order to gain an insight into the problems of child abuse and infanticide and how this has been experienced over time by professionals and society, we offer you this Module ‘Evaluation and Profiling Sexual Offenders.’
Everyone knows it. Child abuse occurs in all population groups. Offenders are detected in all groups either. Everywhere in the world.
To stop the abuse of children, we absolutely need to stop the offenders. We need to profile them, question them in the right and human way, we need to make an evaluation, and we need to consequently punish them, provide the right treatment and restore society.
Module 10
Victims of Victims – Requiem of a child murderer – Breaking the Eternal Vicious Circles
I no longer believe in the idea that we were born a ‘monster’. In each of the men, the killers of children I examined, I found the roots of their deviations. Each assassin was brought up in a violent or at least extremely disturbing home. No, they are not ‘born monsters’.
We must take responsibility to avoid future murders of children. By treating children who have been trapped early in their lives and by preventing them from becoming killers.
This module is about a case study.
Diploma
After having finished all modules, an exam will be taken. A diploma will be delivered afterwards.
The therapies are highly interactive and humane between the professional and the perpetrator. And although a contract of non-confidentiality is established between the perpetrators and the therapist (this is discussed further in module II), above all there must be a bond of unshakable trust between therapist and perpetrator. Tasks must be completed every week and discussed in the next therapeutic session. Offenders can be followed up on an outpatient basis or in a closed setting.
The aim of the courses is to cover as complete a work area as possible. Each module is set up in such a way that you can immediately start working with it in practice. There are 10 modules in total, but additional modules will be added in the future to work with specific people.
The V & CPA Team
