Recap: International Training Course on Core Correctional Skills

The one-week International Training School on Core Correctional Skills was able to refresh and update the core skills of the more experienced correctional staff while providing the newcomers with a solid and cutting-edge starting point.
During this week, core correctional skills (such as relationship skills, pro-social modeling, problem-solving, motivational interviewing and cognitive restructuring) were developed taking into account the basics but also the most up-to-date and evidence-based practices. For instance, building up the working alliance covered issues such as clarifying the role or socializing into the role, empathy, dealing with resistance and so on but was also looked into how to deal with power imbalance, how to maximize choices, how to ensure co-production and how to maintain and develop the working alliance.

As a novelty, this edition also tackled the issue of resilience and burnout as fast changes that took place in the last few years placed huge pressure on correctional staff challenging, therefore, their coping skills.

Guests such as prof. Fergus McNeill, prof. Joanna Clarke and Joseph Arvidson and others shared their knowledge and experience while discovering new insights into modern supervision practice and resilience.