Sex offenders who are particularly resistant to treatment do not relinquish their denial quickly enough to be accepted into standard offense-specific group treatment programs. However, specialized pretreatment programs that focus on lessening denial can decrease resistance and denial in a significant number of these offenders. After this pretreatment, these offenders can enter offense-specific group programs. Each of the six stages of pretreatment consists of a series of strategies or interventions designed to lessen denial. The interventions are offered in weekly, individual counseling sessions rather than in therapy groups. The six stages are called (1) containment, (2) symptom relief, (3) reframe denial, (4) reframe accountability, (5) model empathy, and (6) successive approximation of confrontation. The authors have chosen to work with offenders in denial for 6 months and terminate those who display little change in denial or resistance after that amount of time. Tables and 41 references