Entry requirementsThey are for • mental health nurses and social workers • therapists qualified in another field • clinical psychologists • medical practitioners • others in professional/psychological support services usually in the NHS.
Course descriptionWe run these courses with the Association of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (ACAT). Approved ACAT trainers deliver them, according to our quality standards, at various sites across England and Scotland .
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is an integrated approach developed in the UK. First developed to treat neurotic disorders in outpatient settings, in recent years it has developed for work with more severely disturbed, personality disorder problems. It is suitable for people whose primary disturbances are in interpersonal relationships.
Like cognitive behaviour therapy, it can be used with people who lack the interest in self-exploration and the capacity to tolerate the frustration that may be important for success in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies. It has been applied where there is some dissociation of different states of mind.
CAT is proving to be effective in working with difficult or personality-disordered patients for whom disordered interpersonal relations are the main feature of their psychopathology and disrupt treatment.
It is also proving to be helpful in working with the complex interpersonal reactions made by these patients in staff teams and institutions, which may often aggravate these problems unless understood and managed. This shows an emerging trend for using CAT as opposed to doing it as an individual therapy. This can lead to a greater understanding of the problems and service needs of patients by mental health teams.
The courses are held at a number of venues across the country.
Associated careers
CAT is applicable to all those in the helping professions in particular those working in the statutory services with complex cases. It improves your career prospects and professional development.
Course content
Skills Certificate modules
• CAT and its theoretical Integration
• CAT principles of practice
• CAT perspective/informed on case management skills
Postgraduate Diploma
Year one core modules
• CAT and its theoretical integration I: CAT’s model of the self and mental health
• CAT principles of practice I: core concepts, skills, activities and tools
• the therapeutic relationship I: alliance, transference/counter-transference
• professional development: boundaries, roles, limits and endings
Year two modules
• CAT and its theoretical integration II: implications for CAT theory and practice
• CAT model of complex presentations
• CAT principles of practice II: integrating techniques and relational therapy; specialist applications
• the therapeutic relationship II: professional and personal development
MSc
Depending on experience • research methods plus a dissertation • a research dissertation