Find out more about Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) through these information pages, with links and downloads.
Firstly, if you're interested in a description of this therapy model from CAT therapists, with commentary from people who have used CAT as a therapy, this video from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is a good place to begin.
CAT is a time limited therapy. Usually you complete it over sixteen sessions. You may come for twenty-four sessions if you have more complex difficulties. Sometimes a shorter form of CAT might work well for you. The length of therapy depends on the setting and the sorts of difficulties you have.
CAT includes three stages of therapy, and ending is kept in mind from the very start of therapy.
CAT focusses on patterns that are causing problems for you in the present. Importantly, it also takes into account influences and relationships in your past. CAT also takes into account circumstances around you in your world and their effect on you. One of CAT’s aims is to help you understand how your difficulties came about and what keeps them going.
Your therapist will offer you diagrams and letters as part of the therapy. These can also be helpful as reminders later on. If it’s hard for you to read or write, your therapist can usually adapt CAT so that it’s still helpful.
You will also be likely to use some form of monitoring between sessions to help you keep CAT in mind. This may mean filling in pen-and-paper forms, keeping some notes or a journal between sessions. A CAT App is currently in development.
At meetings you and your therapist will reflect together on the patterns that are the focus of your therapy. Being able to spot and recognise when a problem pattern is happening is a first step in starting to make changes.
CAT also pays attention to the feelings and behaviours that come up in the relationship between the patient and therapist throughout sessions. This makes it a relational therapy.
Read more detailed information about different aspects of CAT in the different pages and posts on this site.
CAT For Me by ACAT Public Engagement Team
CC BY-SA 4.0
CAT with different client groups in different settings:
An inclusive approach which takes the social world into account
First-hand accounts of CAT by Experts By Experience
