Sex Offense Specific Treatment

Walter Cardona, M.Ed. is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and state-certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider (SOTP; credential #SOTP.FC.60867733) providing assessment, treatment, and clinical supervision services for court-ordered and voluntary individuals involved in the criminal justice system. Services are designed to meet Washington State standards and support accountability, risk reduction, and long-term community safety. Treatment may involve communication with supervising authorities as required by court order or supervision conditions.

The rehabilitation of individuals who have sexually offended, aimed at preventing or reducing the likelihood of further such behavior, is at the heart of Sexual Offender (SO) Treatment. Treatment focuses on accountability, risk reduction, and development of skills necessary for long-term community safety and successful reintegration. Services are informed by current research and Washington State treatment standards. The most important treatment targets will be those factors that have been shown through research to bear the strongest empirical relationship with sexual reoffending. Understanding and addressing the etiological sources of such behavior is also important. Factors considered for SO treatment are many and include: 1) the extent an individual acknowledges their offending behavior and is motivated for rehabilitation, 2) their level of re-offense risk, 3) demographic factors such as gender, age, and cultural background, and 4) the presence of coexisting concerns such as mental health diagnoses or low cognitive functioning.  

Services Include
• Individual sex offender specific treatment
• Group treatment
• Risk assessment and Sexual Deviancy Evaluations
• Progress reports and treatment summaries
• Coordination with probation, DOC, attorneys, and supervising agencies; relapse prevention planning; individuals who received court-ordered Special Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative (SSOSA*) in accordance with RCW 9.94A.670

Clients come to SO treatment in a variety of ways, either through federal agencies such as the Western District of Washington U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, state agencies like the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF), District Courts with Probation Services, hospitals, and attorneys. Referrals are made for either Sexual Deviancy Evaluations or on-going SO treatment. Referrals from courts, attorneys, probation officers, and self-referring clients are welcome.

Sex Offender Treatment Programs are not deemed mental health programs; they are seen by insurance companies as educational programs by insurance companies and are consequently not reimbursed through insurance. Premera’s medical director provided the following:

“The member would have to have a sexual disorder that meets DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for one of the paraphilias (i.e. sexual deviancies).  It is important to understand that not all sex offender behavior meets diagnostic criteria, so not all sex offender behavior is due to a mental disorder (and if not, then services are not covered under the plan).  Additionally, the services that are provided would have to be services that are consistent with covered CPT codes.  Educational services are not treatment services and are not covered.” 

Therefore, I do not submit claims for insurance for SO treatment. SO treatment is an out-of-pocket expense. View “Rates” page for costs for either evaluations or individual SO treatment.

*A SSOSA sentence consists of a suspended sentence, incarceration up to 12 months, treatment for up to 5 years, and a term of community custody. An individual is eligible for SSOSA if: they were convicted of a sex offense other than Rape 1 or Rape 2 • The individual had no prior convictions for felony sex offenses in this or any other state, the individual has no prior violent offenses within five years of the current offense, current offense did not cause substantial bodily harm to the victim, the individual has an established relationship or connection to the victim, standard sentence range for the offense includes the possibility of confinement for less than 11 years. The judge is to consider in the SSOSA decision an examination report provided by a treatment provider, the victim’s opinion must be given great weight in considering whether to grant a SSOSA, whether the individual and the community will benefit from the SSOSA, whether the individual had multiple victims, whether the individual is amenable to treatment, the risk the individual poses (to be eligible for a SSOSA, a defendant must be assessed as low-risk), whether the SSOSA is too lenient in light of the circumstances. SSOSA is intended to allow for accountability and to encourage victims to disclose without fear that the individual known to them who caused them harm would be subject to a lengthy term of incarceration.