Past Cafe CAT Events

We’ll update this page as more Café CAT events take place.  In the meantime you can catch up on any tweets about meetings on the Twitter hashtag #CafeCatalyse.  Since 2019, Café CAT also has its own Twitter account which you can follow – @CafeCATalyse

To find out more about forthcoming Café CAT meetings, click on this link.

CAT in Lockdown – 19 June 2020

Café CAT’s first ever online Zoom meeting was led by Renate Pantke and Jo Coggins on the topic of “CAT in Lockdown”.  Over twenty colleagues joined the discussion and shared experience on using and adapting cognitive analytic therapy during the COVID19 pandemic.

CAT on Film Take Two – 18 October 2019

July’s CAT on Film event was repeated at the Showroom Cinema, this time in Sheffield when Kathryn Pemberton again presented on the CAT training films. For this meeting, Glenys Parry gave a steering group and trainer perspective, and Renate Pantke, Catalyse Sheffield therapist, facilitated discussion.

CAT on Film – 4 July 2019

The sixth Café CAT was the largest Café gathering to date.  Around thirty-five people came together at HOME in Manchester for the meeting. This was a Manchester screening and discussion of several of the CAT training flms which Catalyse had created.  Kathryn Pemberton, production manager, and Dawn Bennett, steering group member, described how the films had been developed.  They shared initial feedback from a pilot with practitioner trainees, whose teaching days included this material.  Those at the Café meeting shared their responses to the films and helped us think about supporting materials which might be included when they are made available more broadly.

Hope – 30 January 2019

The fifth Café CAT meeting took place at a new venue, The Salutation Pub in Manchester.  This was led initially by  Rhona Brown  on the topic of Hope. This involved another wide ranging conversation drawing upon the experience of those attending, on how we relate to both hope and despair, what hope-promoting therapeutic  approaches participants had integrated helpfully within a cognitive analytic therapy framework, and what could help keep us buoyant as therapists in a challenging world.

Sharing highlights from ACAT’s conference in Keele – 25 July 2018

The focus of the fourth Café was feedback and discussion from the ACAT conference which had taken place earlier that the month. Several people who had attended shared their highlights.

Similarities and differences between NHS and private therapy work – 25 April 2018

The third Café meeting was led by Suzanne Riddell, CAT practitioner & clinical psychologist.  Suzanne led a conversation around practising CAT in different service contexts in NHS and private sector settings.

Exploring CAT tools, what’s kept post training? – 24 January 2018

Clive Turpin led the second Café CAT gathering on the topic of CAT tools.  Some returning group members and some new to the meeting shared thoughts and experience on using and adapting standard CAT tools in training and beyond.  The discussion moved from letters, diagrams and monitoring tools to metaphor, stories and superheroes.  We thought about the therapeutic relationship and how we might consider this a key tool in CAT.

Clive reflects on this and another event in his blog “Café CAT: The Story So Far”.  Read Clive’s blog by clicking here.

What state are we in? Reviewing how states are incorporated into maps and our work – 11 October 2017

Our first Café CAT was led by CAT psychotherapist and supervisor Clive Turpin and took place at Z Arts in Hulme. Clive started off a conversation on the topic of states of mind. The group that gathered included CAT practitioners,  CAT psychotherapists, some just starting practitioner training, some about to complete it, and another psychological therapist who’d undertaken a placement using CAT during clinical psychology training.

You can read more about the meeting at Vikki Aadahl and Lucinda Bolger’s blog here.