Spring Conference Wrap-Up and Farewell

By David S. Prescott, LICSW

As someone who has borne witness to change in clients for over 40 years, I recently found myself at a true crossroads a few weeks ago and stepped down from the ATSA Blog. This kind of change is always bittersweet. I have been very fortunate to be part of the blog since its earliest days, when Robin Wilson first established it at ATSA’s behest. The timing has been good; I am just back from many of the spring conferences in our field. Each of these conferences has been an opportunity to reflect on a long career in the field and to look forward as well.

In April, the Oregon and Washington state chapters of ATSA teamed up for a conference at the beautiful Skamania Resort on the banks of the Columbia River. The Pacific Northwest is one of the birthplaces of ATSA, and its strong independent spirit was evident at this conference. A highlight of the experience was Lyne Piché and Anton Schweighofer coming down from Canada to discuss their work with people convicted of CSAM crimes. However, the real take-away was the fact that this inaugural joint conference showed what can happen when organizations team up to talk about their work and the challenges they face. This grassroots effort not only recalled ATSA’s earliest days (often involving brown-bag lunches to discuss the use and misuse of the existing measures of the time), but also exemplified how a small group of dedicated professionals can make things happen.

The Minnesota ATSA conference convened in April. MnATSA now has a long history of highly organized events, strongly influenced by long-time members who know the audience and bring humor and camaraderie as well as numerous options for workshops. The highlights included a keynote address by Apryl Alexander, who reminded us of the importance of simply talking about the issues we face – particularly in respecting individual cultural differences. Another highlight was Jill Levenson’s keynote address on post-conviction stress and its effects on clients. Each of these keynotes would have been unimaginable 20 years ago and were only possible because of our field’s history of not shying away from difficult conversations.

A week or two later, the Oregon Adolescent Sexual Offending Treatment Network held it’s 40th anniversary conference. To celebrate, the organizers brought in Tim Kahn to provide a pre-conference workshop and then had an afternoon panel featuring Tim Kahn, Tom Leversee, and me to reflect back and look ahead. Without any question, the biggest take-away from this conference was the discussion of the use of polygraph with adolescents, especially in the wake of ATSA’s 2017 statement that it no longer supported the use of this measure. Given the role of polygraph in our field’s history, the discussion illustrated the sea change of thought and improved practice as the use of the polygraph has waned. Sadly, it was almost entirely extemporized in the moment by the speakers, highlighting a fact of great conferences: You had to be there; it wasn’t recorded or written down.

Finally, towards the end of May, the combined conference of New York State ATSA and the Alliance for the Prevention of Sexual Abuse convened. After excellent pre-conference workshops and a shared keynote by Jacque Page and Bob McGrath, Jeffrey Sandler presented preliminary outcome data from New York’s Strict and Intensive Supervision and Treatment program. One view of his findings was that this program not only has considerable impact, but that when clients do return to the system, it is more likely to be as a result of factors related to antisociality rather than problematic sexual interests. Another highlight was when New York resident Justyna Rzewinski received the conference’s President’s Award for her remarkable efforts at exposing cruel practices at New York City’s Rikers Island. Together, Sandler’s exhaustive research and Rzewinski’s courage are models for what can be accomplished in our field.

That’s it for me! I am eternally grateful to Robin Wilson for asking me to join the blog early on, and to all of those I worked with subsequently, including Jon Brandt, Alissa Ackerman, Kieran McCartan, and Kasia Uzieblo. Of course, I am most grateful to my wife, Louise, who has been patient with my fascination with this work for 32 years, and who has always been willing to speak with me as an outsider, sharing ideas and feedback. As the old saying goes, alone I can travel faster, but together we can go further.