Encephale
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Psychotherapy for sex offenders has only very recently started to develop in France. The French law on compulsory treatment for sex offenders was voted in 1998, and many mental health practitioners are not trained to treat such patients yet. In our ambulatory forensic consultation, sex offenders have been treated since 1992 and group psychotherapy has been offered to them since 1994. ⋯ These patients often express being very relieved after the first sessions, as the group therapy is generally their first opportunity to express their feelings, sexual fantasies and thoughts about paedophilia. Pithers' model, used within a group were patients are free to speak in a human, warm and confronting atmosphere, seems clinically accurate and effective in helping paedophiles in France. We now need studies to check therapy effectiveness on relapse and to understand which therapy factors are efficient on sex offenders.