Courses — Where Research Meets Practice

StepWise Workshops

StepWise 360 Interviewing Children and Youth

In this basic workshop, you will learn how to conduct developmentally-appropriate forensic interviews with children and adolescents.

StepWise 360 Interviewing Adult Witnesses

In this basic workshop, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct defensible investigative interviews with adult victims and witnesses.

StepWise 360: Effective Interviewing for Child Welfare

In this basic workshop for child welfare professionals, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct effective forensic interviews of children, adolescents, and adults.

StepWise 360 Interviewing Trauma Survivors

In this advanced workshop, you will learn how to conduct client-centered, trauma-informed, strength-based forensic interviews with adult victims and witnesses - with special focus given to sexual assault survivors.

StepWise 360 Tailoring for Complex Child Abuse Cases

In this advanced workshop, you will develop the skills necessary to conduct forensic interviews with individuals of any age who have complex needs, such as physical, psychological, and behavioural challenges.

StepWise 360 Tailoring for Complex Needs

In this advanced workshop, you will learn how to navigate complex child abuse cases such as those involving reluctance to disclose, multiple witnesses or perpetrators, historical abuse, false allegations, and recantations.

StepWise 360: Interviewing Reluctant Adults in Child Welfare

In this advanced workshop for child welfare professionals, you will learn how to navigate forensic interviews with reluctant or hostile adults (such as offending and non-offending parents and foster parents) in a collaborative and respectful manner.

StepWise 360 Interviewing Suspects

In this advanced workshop for law enforcement and other investigators, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct effective and defensible suspect interviews.

StepWise 360 Update and Practice

This advanced workshop will provide you with key research updates and answer your questions from the field. It is suitable for those who are new to the StepWise, those who were trained a long time ago, or those who would like some hands-on practice.

The StepWise Interview Mentoring (SWIM) Programs

Individual and group SWIMs provide you with ongoing supervision and support, help you transfer classroom learning to the field, and protect you from drifting away from best practices.

What is the StepWise 360?

The StepWise 360 is the latest iteration of the court-recognized StepWise approach to interviewing, the empirically-based semi-structured model for conducting investigative interviews. Unlike other forensic interviewing models, the StepWise 360 can be used by various types of investigators (e.g., police, child protection workers, mental health specialists) to gather reliable information from victims, witnesses, and suspects of all ages. This adaptability offers many advantages for interviewers and organizations alike, including the streamlining of training and learning.

The StepWise 360: Interviewing Child and Youth workshop is approved by the National Children’s Alliance as meeting the foundational forensic interview training requirements for Accredited Children’s Advocacy Centers.

More information about the NCA Accreditation Standards and approved curricula can be found at:

https://learn.nationalchildrensalliance.org/accreditation

https://learn.nationalchildrensalliance.org/cac-accreditation-resources

We offer workshops on the StepWise approach to interviewing. The workshops cover forensic interviewing of children, youth, or adults and tailoring interviews for people with complex needs.

Workshops 2

Sexual Offence Risk for Child Protection

In this basic workshop for child welfare professionals, you will learn how to assess and manage individuals at risk of sexually offending against children using research-based tools.

Skillful Exchanges

In this basic workshop, you will learn how to interact more effectively and collaboratively with emotionally-charged or disgruntled individuals (clients, co-workers, customers, etc.).

General Overview of TFP Workshops

Our workshops combine evidence-based knowledge pieces with practical skills training. Based on advancements in psychology and learning, we use an incremental, scaffolded, and staggered approach to training. This ensures that participants acquire basic knowledge and skills before they move to more advanced levels. We also use a combination of interactive lecture, video and transcript analysis, live demonstrations, individual and group exercises, improv-based games, practice sessions with peers and actors, self-directed offline activities, and more to maximize attention, engagement, skill-building, and knowledge retention.

Our workshops are limited to 24 participants with two TFP trainers. Limiting group size allows for more personalized and frequent attention for each participant during practice exercises, which is essential for skill-building. Our trainers are skilled instructors with years of relevant field experience (police officers, social workers, psychologists, child welfare specialists). With this two-trainer approach, participants benefit from a broader range of expertise, knowledge, and experience.

To book a closed workshop for your team, or to register for a seat at an open workshop, please contact Practice Manager, Kamna Nand, at knand@theforensicpractice.com.

Click here to register for open workshops

"The presenters were AMAZING. They were great with engaging with us. They are very knowledgeable and are skilled into transferring their knowledge through different exercises. They were very organized and made the ZOOM training go very smoothly."

Child Protection Worker
"Very well done adult learning environment. The right amount of engagement (pop quizzes etc) but not having to be on camera the whole time. Very attentive to chat and any questions that came in. Great ability to navigate the clock and sticking to the agenda but also allowing for impromptu conversations or other discussions. Then refocusing back to topic!"

Police Officer
"Presenter did very well, I thought I was going to hate the online learning but they did a good job"

Police Officer
"I loved this training, I thought the presenters were very engaging, they were fun which made the course something I looked forward to the last 3 weeks. They were kind and respectful but honest in their feedback which I appreciated. They were inclusive."

Child Protection Worker
“every person that is interviewing ANYONE should have this course”

Police Officer
"Fantastic course and so well structured. The course material was incredibly practical, well organized and relevant. This training will inform our practice moving forward. Grateful for the experience - thank you!"

Director of Education
“It is not easy to engage over 20 people on Zoom and you were both able to do that throughout the 3 weeks training. Great job, awesome training.”

Child Protection

What is the StepWise 360?

"The presenters were AMAZING. They were great with engaging with us. They are very knowledgeable and are skilled into transferring their knowledge through different exercises. They were very organized and made the ZOOM training go very smoothly."

"Presenter did very well, I thought I was going to hate the online learning but they did a good job"

"I loved this training, I thought the presenters were very engaging, they were fun which made the course something I looked forward to the last 3 weeks. They were kind and respectful but honest in their feedback which I appreciated. They were inclusive."

“every person that is interviewing ANYONE should have this course”

"Fantastic course and so well structured. The course material was incredibly practical, well organized and relevant. This training will inform our practice moving forward. Grateful for the experience - thank you!"

“It is not easy to engage over 20 people on Zoom and you were both able to do that throughout the 3 weeks training. Great job, awesome training.”

The Forensic Practice