The Illinois Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers is the Illinois Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, which is an international, multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to preventing sexual abuse. Through research, education, and shared learning ATSA promotes evidence based practice, public policy and community strategies that lead to the effective assessment, treatment and management of individuals who have sexually abused or are at risk to abuse.
ATSA is an association of individuals from around the world committed to achieving a high level of professional excellence. ATSA promotes the philosophy that empirically based assessment, practice, management, and policy strategies will: enhance community safety, reduce sexual recidivism, protect victims and vulnerable populations, transform the lives of those caught in the web of sexual violence, and illuminate paths to prevent sexual abuse.
JANUARY 2018 Newsletter is now available. January 2018.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By President Jeff Reynolds, Ph.D., LCPC
President’s Message. April 2018
Hello fellow Illinois ATSA members and colleagues. I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who was able to attend our 2018 Illinois ATSA conference in Sugar Grove in March. We had 30% increase in the number of attendees this year compared to our 2017 conference. I would also like to thank everyone who made the conference a success. We had some great volunteers without whom we would not have been able to make things run so smoothly. Both Shannon Chrismore and Glen Ensinger have volunteered for two years in a row and were a tremendous help. Our two keynote speakers brought a tremendous amount of experience and expertise to the presentations. Despite a blizzard in Boston, Dr. James Shields was able to make it in and presented all day on Thursday on issues surrounding juvenile registration and prevention. Dr. Andrew Harris presented continuously for two straight days and provided a great training on the STABLE and ACUTE. In addition to the keynote speakers we had a great line up of presenters covering topics from the use to polygraph examinations, to using mindfulness when treating sexual offenders, to efforts to reform the juvenile sex offender registration policy. I would also like to give a big thanks to the Illinois Sex Offender Management Board. Without their support we would not be able to offer this type of training opportunity. Finally, we were thrilled to have several people apply for ATSA membership during the conference and a few more who have applied since the conference. Remember, if you are an ATSA member and live or work in Illinois, you are member of ILATSA.
During the late afternoon on the last day of the conference, the ILATSA board of directors gathered to begin planning the 2019 conference. We have been able to review the conference evaluations we received and plan to incorporate as many of the suggestions we can into our conference next year. We have scheduled the 2019 ILATSA Conference for March 14 & 15, 2019 in Sugar Grove. In the next month or two we will be working to secure our keynote speakers and calling for presentations for the breakout sessions. I would like to encourage all of our members or other interested parties to consider presenting at the conference.
The ILATSA board is also working to bring our members a series of free webinars over the course of the next several months. These webinars are in conjunction with the Global Institute for Forensic Research (GIFR) and Multi Health Systems (MHS). Currently we have a webinar scheduled in August that will address treatment approaches with individuals who are transgender and have committed a sexual offense or who have other behavioral health needs. We welcome anyone who might be interested in presenting a webinar to visit www.ILATSA.org to learn more about presenting and to register.
Since the conference, we have also updated our e-mail address to: admin@ilatsa.org. As always, if you have feedback or suggestions for the board, please e-mail us. Finally, I would like to remind everyone about the ATSA conference in Vancouver in October. Hopefully, we can have a strong Illinois contingent at the conference. We hope you’ll consider joining us there!
CURRENT REQUEST FOR NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS!
ILATSA is currently seeking newsletter submissions! If you have a story about how you implemented something that you learned from the webinars, or an interesting resource that you would like to review, we would love to hear about it. Please submit to: admin@ilatsa.org
2017 Newsletters
Previous Newsletters:
December 2016 Newsletter December 2015 Newsletter July 2014 Newsletter December 2013 Newsletter
July 2016 Newsletter August 2015 Newsletter April 2014 Newsletter July 2013 Newsletter
March 2016 Newsletter February 2015 Newsletter February 2013 Newsletter