Hopeful Paths
Prosocial Approaches to Changing Inappropriate Sexual Behavior
Barbara K. Schwartz, Ph.D. and Henry R. Cellini, Ph.D.

This guided workbook is designed for individuals who have had problems with sexually inappropriate behavior. This may have resulted in criminal convictions, civil lawsuits, or loss of relationships, jobs, or status within the community. Inappropriate sexual behavior can range from downloading illegal pornography to violent sexual assaults. When a person is accused of some type of sexual misconduct, there can be many responses. One might readily admit guilt and take full responsibility or one might totally deny the charge. Most commonly the response is somewhere in between. An individual may admit that something happened but disagree with the nature of the behavior, the frequency, the degree of force. The behavior of the victim might be challenged. There are as many different explanations of why people act out sexually as there are offenders. The aim of Hopeful Paths is to help individuals in treatment separate and understand the legitimate dynamics of their behavior from explanations that might make them feel better but interfere with helping acknowledge and thus correct harmful behavior.

Hopeful Paths helps offenders prepare for the treatment experience, enables new members of treatment groups to quickly catch up with concepts already familiar to existing members, and is an excellent screening tool for identifying offenders most likely to respond to treatment.

This comprehensive self-guided program for sex offender treatment offers:

• An integrative approach that supports a range of treatment modalities including behavioral, cognitive, addiction, psychodynamic and relapse prevention.
• Highly interactive format gets patients actively involved in their own treatment.
• Accessible reading level—ideal for low-literacy and special needs offenders, adults and juveniles.
• Tested, refined and proved effective with thousands of offenders.
• Time- and cost-saving way to prepare offenders for group or intensive therapy, or supplement treatment.
• Facilitator's Guide helps you conduct well-planned, productive group sessions
• Special savings when you order multiple copies.

“The authors of this workbook have over seventy years of combined experience working with sex offenders in a variety of capacities. During that time we have seen the vast majority of these individuals go on to lead happy and productive lives. Thus we have chosen the title of this work, Hopeful Paths. The Integrative Model formulated by Dr. Schwartz addresses the many different components that come together to create a sex offense.  It is designed to help individuals to develop a variety of tools which can help them fulfill their basic human needs in a prosocial way with no need to resort to hurting others.”— Dr. Barbara K. Schwartz and Dr. Henry R. Cellini

“Dr. Barbara K Schwartz and Dr. Henry R Cellini have taken a complex and difficult area of human behavior and provided treatment professionals with a powerful tool for positive change—an interactive, guided workbook for individuals in sex offending treatment programs, providing clients an opportunity to understand and control their inappropriate sexual behaviors. Each of the eleven chapters of the workbook deals with an important aspect necessary to ameliorate sexually unsuitable behaviors. The workbook is filled with activities and exercises that engage the individual to introspectively assess their own behaviors and make choices to proactively alter them. The companion Facilitator’s guide gives professionals implementing sex offender treatment programs a lesson plan for each section of the guided workbook. This roadmap provides structure for groups to engage in healthy discussion and interaction that maximizes successful change of inappropriate sexual offending behaviors. In fact, many of the chapters are helpful in changing cognitive distortive thinking in offenders generally. Kudos to Dr Schwartz and Dr. Cellini for their insight, ingenuity, and innovative contribution.”— Barry Glick, PhD. NCC, ACS, LMHC, LPCC, author of Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for At-Risk Youth and Implementing Successful Cognitive Behavioral Interventions

“Schwartz and Cellini’s Hopeful Paths covers many criminogenic need areas, including methods to challenge offense-supportive myths, healthy relationships, distress tolerance and lifestyle changes. It also addresses some often-neglected topics such as understanding trauma and healthy sexuality. And Hopeful Paths avoids common pitfalls that plague many other therapy workbooks by providing a facilitator’s guide which includes instructions on how to incorporate experiential exercises into the curriculum.”— Dr. Anita Schlank, Editor, The Sexual Predator