I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and worked in the NHS for many years, latterly as Psychology Clinical Lead in Adult Community Mental Health in Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust. I am an ACAT accredited CAT psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor. I am actively involved in CAT training being part of the team that established the CAT North/Catalyse Practitioner course. I hold the Course Director/Co-ordinator role, am currently Co-chair of Catalyse and lead other streams of our work.
I have taught and been ACAT Moderator for other CAT Practitioner Trainings in the UK. Early in my CAT career I conducted a PhD investigating how CAT therapists, working with clients who presented with borderline features, managed ruptures in the therapeutic alliance and derived a model of therapist competence. I published this work and subsequent research including the development of the C-CAT, a measure of competence in CAT skills.
I was Vice Chair of ACAT Training Committee for many years, assisting with the management and delivery of ACATs portfolio of accredited trainings. In my NHS role I worked with individuals with a history of complex trauma and am particularly interested in the use of CAT as a model to conceptualise complex mental health issues in a way that provides a clear framework for teams. I have run CAT skills courses for generic mental health workers within my NHS role and other national courses and co-lead CPD workshops.
Publications
Bennett, D. (1994). Readiness to change – the impact of reformulation: A case example of cognitive analytic therapy. International Journal of Short-term Psychotherapy, 9, 83-91.
Ryle, A. & Bennett, D. (1997). Case formulation in cognitive analytic therapy. In T.D. Eells (Ed.), Handbook of Psychotherapy Case Formulation. (pp. 289-313). New York: Guilford Press.
Bennett, D. & Parry, G. (1998). The accuracy of reformulation in cognitive analytic therapy: A validation study. Psychotherapy Research, 8, 405-22.
Bennett, D. & Parry, G. (2004) Maintaining the Therapeutic Alliance: Resolving Alliance- Threatening Interactions Related to the Transference. Ch 12, 251 – 272 in D Charman(Ed): Core Processes in Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Advancing Effective Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Bennett,D., Pollock,P. and Ryle,A. (2005). The States Description Procedure: the use of guided self-reflection in the case formulation of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 50-56.
Bennett,D. and Ryle,A. (2005) The characteristic features of common borderline states: A pilot study using the States Description Procedure. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 58-66.
Kerr, I.B & Bennett, D.E. (2010) CAT for BPD. In Personality Disorder. Edited By Jay Sarkar & Gwen Adshead
Kellett, S. Bennett, D. Ryle, T. and Thake, A. (2011) Cognitive Analytic Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Therapist Competence and Therapeutic Effectiveness in Routine Practice. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 20, pp 216-225.
Kellett, S & Bennett, D. (2016) Integration of competency assessment into CAT supervision: A practical guide. Chapter 11, pp 149 – 162 in D Pickvance (ed) (2016) Cognitive Analytic Supervision: A relational approach. Routledge
Bennett, Dawn, Liz Fawkes , and Yvonne J. Stevens, ‘Training in CAT’, in Laura Brummer, Marisol Cavueres, and Ranil Tan (eds). Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Oxford Library of Psychology (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Mar. 2024). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198866572.013.50, accessed 8 Oct, 2024
Bennett, Dawn, Glenys Parry and Liz Fawkes, ‘Working with enactments in CAT’, in Laura Brummer, Marisol Cavueres, and Ranil Tan (eds). Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Oxford Library of Psychology (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Mar. 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198866572.013.16, accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Parry, Glenys, and Dawn Bennett, Conpetence in CAT’, n Laura Brummer, Marisol Cavueres, and Ranil Tan (eds). Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Oxford Library of Psychology (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Mar. 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198866572.013.48 , accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
