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Centre for Forensic Neuroscience

Private Therapeutic Polygraph Suitability Questionnaire

This questionnaire is intended to help prospective clients and partners consider whether a therapeutic polygraph discussion may be appropriate. It is not a booking form and does not submit answers to The Centre for Forensic Neuroscience.

A polygraph examination cannot guarantee complete truth, restore trust by itself, or replace therapeutic, clinical, safeguarding, legal, or relationship decision-making.

Privacy & Device Safety

Your answers are processed privately in your browser and are not submitted to The Centre for Forensic Neuroscience. No results are sent to a server, saved to a database, emailed, or tracked by this questionnaire.

Use this questionnaire only on a private device. Downloaded or printed summaries may remain visible to others with access to your device, browser, downloads folder, printer, or shared cloud storage.

Clinical & Safeguarding Limits: Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder is a clinical term. This questionnaire does not diagnose CSBD, assess treatment progress, provide a polygraph opinion, or monitor urgent safety risks.

Urgent safety: If there is immediate risk of harm, call 999, attend A&E, contact NHS 111, your local crisis team, or Samaritans on 116 123.

Start with the issue, not a list of questions

Issue first → examination type second → scope third → suitability review → final question formulation by the examiner.

You may have prepared a number of questions or concerns, and these can be very helpful in defining the scope of the examination. They do not, however, need to become individual polygraph questions. The first task is to identify the underlying issue you are seeking to clarify, including the relevant behaviours or events, the timeframe and the outcome about which you need greater clarity.

  • Is your concern whether a written disclosure is complete? This will usually indicate a Disclosure Polygraph Examination.
  • Is one particular event or behaviour disputed? This may indicate a Specific-Issue Polygraph Examination.
  • Has disclosure or recovery begun, and you want to assess adherence to agreed boundaries since then? This may indicate a Maintenance / Monitoring Polygraph Examination.

All concerns are welcome. They help define the issue and possible scope, but they are not automatically converted into examination questions.

Partner, client or therapist identifies the concerns.

Examiner identifies the defensible issue and scope.

Examiner assesses suitability and formulates the final questions in accordance with professional practice.

Three examination types, three different issues

Disclosure

Is the written disclosure substantially complete and faithful to what the client remembers within the agreed scope?

Specific-Issue

Did one clearly defined disputed event or behaviour occur within an identifiable period?

Maintenance / Monitoring

Were clearly defined therapeutic, recovery or behavioural boundaries followed during a defined retrospective period?

Disclosure = Is the disclosure substantially complete within the agreed scope?

Specific issue = Did this particular event or behaviour occur?

Maintenance = Have the agreed behavioural boundaries been followed during the defined monitoring period?

Step 1 of 7 Browser only
Role Consent Issue Scope Expectations Safety Outcome

Your role

Select the perspective that best describes how you are using this tool.

I am completing this as a:

This questionnaire may be relevant within therapeutic work concerning compulsive sexual behaviour. Selecting this role does not imply a clinical diagnosis.

You will not be asked to provide detailed disclosures, names, allegations, or graphic information. The aim is to identify whether consultation may be appropriate and what may need clarifying first.

Please select a role before continuing.

Consent, voluntariness and device privacy

These statements help identify whether completing and keeping a summary is appropriate for your situation.

Consent and voluntariness
Device privacy

If you cannot confirm every voluntariness statement, you may continue, but the outcome will advise against proceeding normally and will identify the outstanding confirmations.

Begin with the underlying issue

Identify the main uncertainty first. The questionnaire will suggest a likely examination pathway; the examiner makes the final decision after reviewing the issue, scope and suitability.

As the client or prospective examinee, identify what greater clarity is principally being sought. You are not being asked to formulate examination questions.

As a partner or spouse, identify the principal uncertainty as far as you understand it. You may bring all of your concerns to consultation without turning them into proposed examination questions.

What are you principally trying to establish?

Please select the principal issue before continuing.

Several concerns are common. They can be reviewed in consultation to determine whether they define areas for a structured disclosure, one principal disputed issue, agreed maintenance boundaries, or separate matters that cannot defensibly be combined in one examination. Selecting this option does not reject the case, and it does not imply that every concern can necessarily be examined.

Main reason for considering a polygraph
Therapeutic framework

Disclosure scope and readiness

The issue is whether a structured written disclosure is substantially complete and faithfully reflects what the client remembers within the agreed scope. Concerns about sexual contact, pornography use, messaging, paid services, meetings, accounts, communications or other agreed behaviours help define what the disclosure should cover.

These areas define what the disclosure is expected to cover; they are not ordinarily treated as a separate series of polygraph questions.

A disclosure examination examines the disclosure, not a catalogue of suspicions.

Concerns are not automatically converted into separate polygraph questions. Once the disclosure scope is agreed, the examiner formulates a small number of appropriate questions to assess whether the examinee included something they do not remember happening, omitted something relevant they do remember happening, or materially described something differently from how they remember it. This assesses reported recollection and truthfulness; it does not independently prove that every underlying event objectively occurred exactly as described.

As the client or prospective examinee, select the preparation that is already in place, including whether the disclosure scope is defined, stable and therapeutically supported.

As far as you understand, select what has been explained to you. Your areas of concern are important because they help define the disclosure scope. "I do not know" is a neutral response identifying a topic to clarify.

Which statements apply?
Readiness indicators
May need further discussion

Specific-issue scope and readiness

The issue is whether one clearly defined disputed event, behaviour or episode occurred within an identifiable period. Begin with that disputed issue; the examiner determines whether it can be defensibly examined and formulates the final questions.

A list of unrelated suspicions does not become a specific-issue examination simply because each suspicion can be written as a yes/no question.

Where several concerns exist, they may need to be prioritised, narrowed, incorporated appropriately into a disclosure, addressed separately or found unsuitable for examination. This is reviewed in consultation rather than treated as an automatic rejection.

As the client or prospective examinee, consider whether one disputed behaviour or event and its relevant period are defined clearly enough for consultation.

As far as you understand, consider whether there is one principal disputed event or behaviour within an identifiable period. If there are several concerns, bring them all to consultation for review.

Which statements apply?
Readiness indicators
May need further discussion

Maintenance / monitoring scope and readiness

The issue is whether clearly defined therapeutic, recovery or behavioural boundaries were followed during an agreed retrospective period, such as since formal disclosure, the start of treatment, the date boundaries were established or a previous maintenance examination.

Maintenance or monitoring is not primarily intended to resolve unresolved historical allegations. If one historical event remains disputed, a Specific-Issue Polygraph Examination may be more appropriate.

As the client or prospective examinee, select the recovery framework, behavioural boundaries and therapeutic support that are already in place.

As far as you understand, identify the agreed boundaries and relevant period that have been explained to you. You do not need to know clinical details; unanswered points can be noted for discussion.

Which statements apply?
Readiness indicators
May need further discussion

Expectations and limits

Results should be interpreted cautiously and in therapeutic context.

As the client or prospective examinee, this section checks that participation is voluntary, the purpose is therapeutic and the limits of a polygraph examination are understood.

As a partner or spouse, these items identify expectations, safeguarding concerns and areas that may need explanation before proceeding. They do not determine the client's suitability.

Which statements apply?
Helpful expectations
May need further discussion

Stability, coercion and safeguarding

This questionnaire is not monitored. If there is immediate risk of harm, call 999, attend A&E, contact NHS 111, your local crisis team, or Samaritans on 116 123.

Current risk or pressure indicators
May need urgent or professional review
No current concern identified

Please indicate whether any current safety, coercion or pressure concerns apply before viewing the outcome.

This summary is generated from browser data only. It is not a diagnosis, treatment decision, legal advice, safeguarding assessment, polygraph opinion, confirmation of truthfulness, or substitute for therapy, clinical assessment, safeguarding review, or professional judgement.
This result is intended to support discussion with a qualified examiner and, where relevant, a therapist. It is not a decision by itself and should not be used to pressure participation or replace professional judgement.