The Good Lives Model of Correctional Rehabilitation: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice

The book examines the Good Lives Model (GLM) of correctional rehabilitation and its dual aims of risk reduction and well-being enhancement for individuals who have committed crimes. It describes the use of individuals’ prioritized values in intervention plans and to capitalize on and further develop their strengths and reduce the risk for future offending. The book directly addresses the differences between purely risk-oriented rehabilitation correctional models (e.g., Risk-Need-Responsivity Model) and strength-based approaches (e.g., GLM) and the clinical advantages of using the latter. It updates the GLM in the context of recent work in evolutionary biology, quality of life and well-being, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, human rights, naturalistic ethics, criminology, desistance research, and theoretical reformulations of dynamic risk and protective factors. Case studies illustrate the detailed application of GLM evidence-based practice plans to adults convicted of crimes and demonstrate the effectiveness of GLM intervention strategies.

Key areas of coverage include:

• GLM community and within-prison intervention strategies.
• Incorporating dynamic risk factors into GLM case formulations.
• Incorporating desistance research in postrelease planning and practice.
• Policy implications of the GLM.

The Good Lives Model of Correctional Rehabilitation is a must-have resource for clinicians, therapists, and other professionals as well as researchers, professors, and graduate students in developmental psychology, family studies, forensic psychology, criminology/criminal justice, public health, psychotherapy/counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.

Tony Ward, Ph.D., has published 485 chapters, articles, books, and other scholarly works in the areas of male sexual offending and general rehabilitation and practice, and is the creator of the good lives model. Dr. Ward is lead editor of several books including Theories of Sex Offending (Wiley‐ Blackwell, 2016) along with Tony Beech and he was author of Rehabilitation: Beyond the Risk Paradigm  (Routledge, 2007) along with Shadd Maruna. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and won the 2021 Mason Durie Medal for excellence in research in social science.

Gwenda Willis, Ph.D., is a registered clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research and clinical interests focus on strengths-based approaches to psychological assessment and therapy, trauma-informed care, and sexual abuse prevention. Dr. Willis has received numerous awards and accolades for her research, including the New Zealand Psychological Society Hunter Award (2019) and a five-year Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (2015). In 2011, Dr. Willis is a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment & Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA).

David Prescott, LICSW, has been a mental health practitioner for 40 years. He is the Director of the Safer Society Continuing Education Center. Mr. Prescott is the author and editor of 27 books in the areas of understanding and improving services to at-risk clients. He is best known for his work in the areas of understanding, assessing, and treating sexual violence and trauma. Mr. Prescott is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Contribution award from the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA), the 2018 recipient of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network’s C. Henry Kempe Lifetime Achievement award, and the 2022 recipient of the Fay Honey Knopp Award from the New York State Alliance for the Prevention of Sexual Abuse and New York State ATSA.

Stijn Vandevelde, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Department of Special Education (“Orthopedagogics”) at Ghent University, Belgium, since 2013. His research and research interests include forensic special needs education; the support of persons with behavior- and emotional disorders; the support of special target groups (e.g., mentally ill (with an intellectual disability); persons with intellectual disabilities and co-occurring behavior problems and/or psychiatric disorders; substance abuse treatment); quality of life (e.g. in forensic settings); rehabilitation of individuals who have committed crimes and theoretical special education.

Mary Barnao, Ph.D., is a registered Clinical Psychologist who has a private practice where she works with the full spectrum of psychological issues in adults and provides clinical supervision. Dr. Barnao’s doctorate explored the application of the GLM to forensic service users. As part of her research, she developed a GLM training program for forensic practitioners and a set of GLM resources to assist practitioners in their application of the GLM. She has authored journal articles and book chapters on topics relating to forensic and correctional rehabilitation, the GLM, and ethical decision-making in forensic practice.

Wouter Wanzeele is a social worker and forensic therapist at Forensisch Ambulant Begeleidingsteam (CAW Oost-Vlaanderen) and Psychotherapie-BRUG (CGG Ahasverus) in Belgium. In an outpatient service in Ghent, he treats people who committed sexual offences, and he provides therapy for convicted detainees in the prison of Brussels. He has experience in the implementation of the Good Lives Model (GLM) in both individual and group therapy. He publishes articles on good practices in the forensic field and is a member of the editorial board for Social Services and Mental Health Care of the journal Panopticon (Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Forensic Welfare Work).