Negotiation skills - To understand negotiation skills. To develop good listening skills in relation to negotiation. To develop empathy. Awareness of mediation skills. Conflict resolution skills.

Perspective taking - To continue developing perspective taking skills. To put perspective taking skills into practice.

Victim awareness - Defining a ‘victim’. Considering victims. Self victimisation. Effects of crime. Effects of my own crime.

Emotional awareness - To consider unhelpful emotional reactions which includes anger. To introduce methods to manage these reactions more appropriately. Learning where emotions come from.

Social skills - Understanding social skills. Developing social skills. How Challenge to Change can help my social skills.

Communication skills - Re-affirm previous learning of communication skills. Continue to develop self awareness. Understanding different ‘states’ of communication

The course consists of 16 two hour sessions that explore the following areas:

Each session of the Interpersonal Relationships intervention identifies elements which directly relate to the participant’s relationships with others both inside and outside of prison.  There is an emphasis upon communication skills. The sessions require participants to consider and understand the importance of negotiation and how to successfully resolve conflict through empathy and mediation. The sessions also consider the victim awareness perspective, looking at the effects of crime in general and the specific crime committed by the prisoner. It is important to consider emotions, emotional responses and emotional triggers to enable individual reactions to be understood and appropriately controlled.