Interventions for young people

Young people who have exhibited sexually harmful behaviour

Young people who have experienced sexual victimisation

Services for professionals

Individual support for practitioners working with young people involved in sexually harmful behaviour.
Team discussion/Supervision
Telephone advice/support

Training

Pete Thomason - Programme Director

Peter Thomason is a consultant and trainer specialising in therapeutic interventions with adolescent males who sexually abuse. 

His training resource manual was published in November 2000 (Pavilion) and he has been involved in training various organisations in Europe, Scandinavia and throughout Britain on this issue, helping them to provide intervention programmes.

Other projects have included; working with male victims of abuse at a Young Offender Institution and educating staff in aspects of this work, providing individual therapy in conjunction with the London Child and Family Consultation Service at Harley St, and training Youth Offending Teams, Health and Social Service Departments in working with aspects of child abuse and mental health.  Peter is also consultant to Kaleidoscope, a foster care agency developing and supervising practice standards.

Peter is Consultant Therapist to Apple Orchard, a therapeutic community working exclusively with young males who sexually abuse.  He provides therapy for all the young people there on a weekly basis and is presently reconstructing the group therapy programme which he also runs on a weekly basis.  In addition, he supervises the residential team and the unit manager.  Peter recently restructured the Key work system at Apple Orchard to increase its compatibility with the content of individual therapy

Having devised an Assessment and Intervention Programme, Peter holds a number of training events throughout the year to teach Y.O.T. and other Social Work practitioners how to work with young people in the community who exhibit sexually harmful behaviours.   He is consultant for Oberstown Boys School in Ireland, a resource for young offenders.   He is currently helping them to develop a team who will use therapeutic interventions with the young people resident there.  Peter is creating a manual as part of this work, which has the potential to be used as a national resource.

Prior to becoming freelance, Peter was head of therapy for S.W.A.A.Y. an organisation working exclusively with adolescent males who sexually abuse.  His main duties were to provide individual and groupwork therapy to all of the young people in residence.  He completely reorganised the individual and groupwork programmes in order to make them more interesting and relevant for the young people and to integrate a cognitive approach with other elements of the organisation.  This work was supervised by the head of Oxford Forensic Psychology Services.

Peter has 20 years experience in Social Work practice in statutory, independent and private sectors.  His areas of specialist practice include providing treatment programmes and training in domestic violence, violent behaviour, relationship counselling, family work and assessment, and adolescents who sexually abuse.

After leaving SWAAY, Peter joined the Lucy Faithfull foundation in February 2001 as a freelance consultant and later as Principal Therapist (Adolescent Services).  His main duties included training and supervising a team of therapists and designing a structured (C.B.T.) group and individual treatment programme for adolescents who sexually abuse.