What is Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)?
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CAT is a talking therapy that brings together understandings from cognitive therapy and from psychoanalytic approaches into one integrated approach. CAT aims to work with you to look at the way you think, act, and feel to use this information to support you to work towards the goals you have identified. It mainly focuses on the way we relate to ourselves and to other people and can help with a wide range of difficulties including low mood, emotional regulation difficulties, problems with relationships and interpersonal effectiveness, anxiety, the impact of developmental trauma, perfectionism and low self esteem.
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CAT is based on the idea that as children we cope with difficult situations we find ourselves in by developing strategies to manage them. These strategies/patterns come about to help us cope with difficulties during our early years. However, if we continue to use them when they are no longer needed they can cause problems and may get in the way of the things we would like in our lives.
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CAT offers a way of thinking about ourselves differently, looking at how the way we relate to ourselves and others developed and how these patterns play out in our lives. It offers a non-blaming, supportive and collaborative approach to therapy.
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Typically CAT is delivered weekly over either 16 or 24 sessions and this is discussed and agreed at the start of therapy.
More information can be given upon request.
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