Australian and New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse

Armon Tamatea (Rongowhakaata; Te Aitanga-A-Maahaki) is a clinical psychologist who has served as a psychologist and senior research advisor for the Department of Corrections (New Zealand) before being appointed senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Waikato. He has a research and publication history in the area of sexual offending and cultural/indigenous issues in a number of national and international scholarly publications and practice handbooks. Armon is a member of the clinical advisory panel for SAFE, an advisor for sexual violence initiatives (ACC), and is a member of the academic advisory group for the Dept of Corrections. He has served on professional practices committees for the NZ Psychologists Board, been invited to advise Police and the Law Commission, and has recently been involved as a consultant in the design and delivery of sex offence rehabilitation programmes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities in Queensland. He also has ongoing direct clinical work in the sexual harm area.

Katie is a clinical and forensic psychologist with a PhD in Psychology, with the primary research focus being on understanding interpersonal violence through the rubric of cultural experience. She also has a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and more recently, attained a Graduate Certificate in Terrorism and Security Studies.

Katie has been practising since 1996 and has worked in providing treatment to both juvenile and adult offenders, with particular experience specialising in sexual and violent offenders. In recent years, Katie has moved more into the child and family domain, with particular experience in child protection and contested family violence cases.

In addition, she has experience in treating the mentally ill, as well as in child and family and community mental health settings. Katie has also been involved in professional training, program development and academia. She is a full member of both the Colleges of Clinical and Forensic Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society, a clinical member of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse and an accredited supervisor with the NSW Children’s Commission Child Sex Offender Counsellor Accreditation Scheme. She also has membership of the Australia and New Zealand Association of Psychology, Psychiatry and the Law, and is an Authorised Clinician with the Children’s Court Clinic.

Danielle Arlanda Harris is the Deputy Director-Research of the Griffith Youth Forensic Service and a Lecturer in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. Her research examines sexual aggression through a life course perspective, examining onset, specialization/versatility, desistance, and related public policy. She has published more than 30 articles and book chapters and has given over 50 presentations at international conferences. Her study of civilly committed sex offenders in Massachusetts was funded by the Guggenheim Foundation and she received a grant from the California Sex Offender Management Board for a statewide survey of community supervision practices. She is the research chair of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, an associate editor of the Journal of Sexual Aggression, and sits on the executive board of directors of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse. Her first book—which draws on the narratives of men convicted of sexual offenses and released from custody—was released in December.

Russell Pratt is a Principal Practitioner with the Children, Youth and Families Division of the Department of Human Services. Prior to this he was the manager and senior clinician of South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault (SECASA) AWARE program for three years. He has also worked privately, mainly consulting and assessing on the areas of youth, sexually abusive behaviours, complex risk, trauma and family systems. Russell has worked for over 13 years in the field of sexual assault, both with victims/survivors and with youth exhibiting sexually problematic behaviours and sexually abusive behaviours. He is a past chairman of the Victorian Offender Treatment Association (VOTA) and a current board member of ANZATSA.

He was the recipient of the 2008 Creswick Foundation Fellowship in Child Development and Family Relationships. He has presented at over 20 national and international conferences in Australia, the United States and Europe, including at ANZATSA, ATSA, Monash University (Prato, Italy) and NAPN.

Amongst his clinical interests are complex systems, trauma treatment, families, sexually abusive behaviour treatment and supervision.

Dale is the Programs Director of the NSW Pre-Trial Diversion of Offenders Program (Cedar Cottage) and New Street Adolescent Service which are NSW Department of Health treatment programs for parents and children who have sexually abused children. Dale has been Director of these services from the time of their commencement in 1989 and 1998 respectively. Prior to this he worked in a variety of child, adolescent and family mental health settings.

Dale’s professional training is in Social Work and Law. He has a particular interest in training and professional standards for people working with those who have sexually abused children. He participates in a number of government and professional associations, panels and committees as well as assisting some church groups review complaints concerning the conduct of clergy and church leaders.

Dale is a founding member of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse (ANZATSA) and was President of this association from 2000 to 2004. Dale is also a member of the accreditation panel of the Child Sex Offender Counsellor Accreditation Scheme (CSOCAS) administered by the NSW Commission for Children and Young People.

William has been working in the field of wellbeing and psychology since 1998. Since joining Corrections Victoria in 2000, he worked as both a therapist and manager working primarily with sex offenders in the community and prisons in Victoria. After six years, William moved to the UK to work in Kings College London on a project looking at neurological factors and their contribution to the incidence of psychopathy and personality disorders in offenders.

Since returning to Australia in 2008 William has been involved in consultation and training to a variety of government and non-government agencies. The majority of the work has involved young and intellectually disabled clients presenting sexual and violent offending behaviour. During this time he also maintained a private practice working with forensic and non-forensic clients. Since April 2012 William has commenced work with Victoria Police being involved in training and consultation around the wellbeing of the members.

Gwenda is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in forensic/correctional psychology research and practice. She joined the School of Psychology at The University of Auckland in 2013, and formed the Advancing Sexual Abuse Prevention (ASAP) Research Group. Gwen's research and clinical work focuses on strengths-based approaches to working with people who have sexually abused, and sexual abuse prevention.

Gwen is an Editorial Board member for Sexual Abuse, Journal of Sexual Aggression (JSA) and Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand: An Interdisciplinary journal (SAANZ). She is a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA). Gwen has received numerous awards and accolades for her research, including the 2012 New Zealand Psychological Society Early Career Goddard Award – Applied Psychology. In 2015, Gwen was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to research protective factors against sexual reoffending.

Brandon is a practice leader for STOP Adolescent Service in Christchurch and a team leader for the Nelson branch of STOP. STOP provides services for children through to adults who have engaged in concerning sexualized behaviour/harmful sexual behaviour across the South Island, New Zealand. Brandon has held clinical roles at STOP since 2001 and prior to this has worked with adolescents who had engaged in harmful sexual behaviour in support roles both within residential and community-based facilities, along with school counselling, Stopping Violence and Family Planning roles.

Brandon's professional training includes attaining a Master's Degree in Education with Certificate in Counselling (Dist.) from the University of Canterbury. This fostered a continuing passion for the use of strengths based constructivist approaches in therapy. Brandon is a member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors.

Among his clinical interests are: the use of media to assist treatment; addressing client's misuse of technology to access sexually exploitative material; trauma and attachment informed interventions.