Working in Probation with Involuntary Clients, an Inside Perspective

In the probation services the persons under supervision, represent the perfect illustration of the concept of involuntary client, i.e. the one who ends up benefiting from the support/ assistance of a specialist not as a result of his own decision, and/ or awareness of the necessity of such help, but as a result of a legal mandate.This aspect determines and explains the specific profile of this category of beneficiaries of the intervention activities and programs in the correctional space. In accordance with this reality, the specifics of professional relationship and of the work carried out by the probation counselors with the supervised persons are also configured. This text aims to present on one hand, the obvious and less obvious implications of non-volunteering and on the other hand, some of the dimensions of the professional competencies of probation counselors required in such a type of professional interaction. A series of aspects are followedto describe the relationship between probation counsellors competencies and the contents of the professional dual role, for creating awareness opportunities of their own problems by the offenders under supervision, and developing individual resources. In this way, the development of motivation for change and the dynamics of the transition from the state of involuntary client to that of a motivated person, take place in order to make a prosocial change of behavior.


Keywords: probation, involuntary clients, professional competencies, correctional interventions, probation counselors, rehabilitation