Adult Probation Methods

While interning in New Britain Adult Probation, I observed how each probation officer had their own style when it came to counseling their clients. The more time I spent in adult probation and with different probation officers, I began to wonder how successful these tactics were. Therefore, I will be researching how effective - in terms of successful completion of probation and parole and low recidivism rates - different forms of counseling are to individuals on either probation or parole. The goal of this project is to gain knowledge on the forms of counseling, to learn about which methods work best for individuals on either probation or parole, and to determine if there is a correlation between any particular counseling method and the success …show more content…
These two methods are the best out of the five core methods because they focus on changing behaviors and thought processes. This combination is essential when counseling the probation and parole populations because the goal is successful completion and low recidivism. Probation and parole officers want to give their clients tools and resources so they can live in the real world and obey the laws set in place by the government. In order to do just that, clients need to change their ways of thinking and behaving so that they do not revert back to their old ways of breaking the law. Cognitive behavioral therapy “has been found to be effective with juvenile and adult offenders; substance abusing and violent offenders; and probationers, prisoners and parolees,” this is incredibly valuable information because probation and parole officers deal with such a variation of clients based on age, substance abuse, violence, and their backgrounds (Clark, 2010). To have a counseling method that is known to be successful in all these different categories is extremely important to be conscious of. This allows probation and parole officers to create their own personal style around the concept of the cognitive behavioral therapy as it has been shown to be successful in populations that they will be dealing with …show more content…
It is known that cognitive behavioral therapy is successful in both juvenile and adult offenders, violent offenders, and substance abuse offenders. This is critical information because this allows a probation or parole officer to base their style off of a counseling method known to be successful in terms of reduced recidivism rates within the population of individuals they work with on a day to day basis. This is extremely relevant to my future because I want to work within the criminal justice and psychology fields. I have not pinpointed a specific career I would like to pursue, but both adult and juvenile probation and parole interest me, as does counseling within corrections, forensic psychology, and counseling juvenile delinquents. All of these career paths involve criminals and counseling (some more than others), but since I am going into this field, I want to know what I can do in my delivery that can help my clients have a better chance of success. Success in my mind is completion of their program and low recidivism rates. If I can adapt my way of counseling to a successful method, in this case the cognitive behavioral model, I can better help my clients succeed and lead a better life for themselves and I want to be able to do that, just as I know other probation and parole officers (as well as other in the criminal justice and