All posts by rhona

A word cloud spelling out CAT in greens, blues and purples

From now till May 2025 ~ Applying to train as a CAT Practitioner

CAT Practitioner Training, Featured

This time of year sees us planning and preparing for opening applications to our annual CAT Practitioner training course. We’re excited to announce that we are now open to applications to the course starting this autumn.   We will be mailing round a message to all those on our existing contacts list . Please share this with anyone you think may be interested. You can follow this link for details of how to apply and entry criteria.

In addition to our standard pathway, we expect again to have a limited number of places for NHSE funded trainees in the North West and Midlands NHE regions. However this stage we don’t know how many places will be funded this way. To stay informed you can check back to the dedicated page on NHSE funding at this link. We’ll post any updates there. That page also tells you what you or your colleagues need to do to seek approval if you hope to secure NHSE funding. This is usually through your Psychology Professional lead or manager who liaises with the NHSE regional lead for your area.

Each year we ask for feedback about the course from outgoing trainees. Through this the course team can gauge how the training’s been received and also pick up important pointers for maintaining quality. It also helps us to create a wordcloud image to use as we start to advertise for the new intake. To keep this fresh year-on-year, we feed in a sample of the comments shared by the outgoing cohort to an online wordcloud generator. This year we asked it to shape the image generated by the sample of words shared (with permission) by the 2023 – 2025 cohort into the letters C, A and T. It’s always interesting to see how the words fall into these randomly generated designs.

But of course this is based just on a sample of comments. Perhaps the best way to work out if the training is for you is to ask around amongst any CAT colleagues or current trainees. Hopefully they can give you more idea about their experience and realities of the training. There’s also a FAQ’s document available for download which might help answer some of your questions.

We look forward to receiving applications by the deadline of 30th May.

A still from a film scene. Seated woman with cropped hair to the right presses a pad of paper into the lap of a seated woman with gathered braided hair to the left.

Spring 2025 brings the second series of CAT Training Films

Featured, Training, Training Films

We are really pleased to announce that our the second series of CAT Training Films are now available to stream. They depict five different clinical scenarios, aiming to represent challenging situations that may be encountered in CAT. You can find all the details at the dedicated page here. For a flavour of the material, watch the short trailer below. Here you’ll also catch a glimpse of the team of actors who helped make the films possible.

We are very grateful to all those whose goodwill, energies and improvisations helped director Kathryn Pemberton facilitate and edit the finished versions. You can see a full list of contributors on the information page. If you’ve purchased a copy of editor Yvonne Steven’s Creativity and Mental Health: A Cognitive Analytic Approach to Integrating Play and Imagination in Psychotherapy, Supervision and Training, you may have seen Kathryn’s chapter (14). In this she recounts reflections on creating two series of training films on cognitive analytic therapy as aides to learning.

Frank Margison lent us his keen overseeing eye on the weekend of filming. Frank was one of the working group who helped conceive and develop this second project. Others who couldn’t make it on the day were Glenys Parry and Mark Evans, but Rhona Brown brought a shelf-full of CAT books to help set the weekend’s stage.

The venue for filming was kindly provided by Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust. Their Endowment Grant funding also helped make it possible to begin the initial stages of this project. The Brickoven Video Production Company team kept us to time and focus over the weekend. They took care of the myriad (and exacting) technical aspects of the filming, sound, lighting and set design. To see some of their images of the filming on the day, click on their logo below.

Brickoven video production company log consisting of a flat triangle made of 12 blocks in hues of orange and brown

We very much hope that these resources will add fruitfully to the range of materials available to scaffold learning in CAT. They aim to support reflection and debate about possible therapeutic responses. They are particularly geared towards year 2 of Practitioner level training, and further CPD applications of CAT.

If you’re interested in subscribing, whether as a course, a Trust, a trainer, or even an individual seeking to refine your clinical skills, then you can do so on either an annual or three month basis. All subscription details are available at this link.

red spiral textile to the left, with warm grey shadows behind and to the right, on a pale wall

Not one but two new CPD events for 2025

CPD

The bad news: both of David Harvey’s’ CAT as a Tool for Leadership’ events in January and February are now fully booked up. If you weren’t quick enough to secure a place but want to attend another then do let us know. It’d be useful to hear whether you are interested in an in person or online repeat.

The good news: we have not one, but two, new CPD events in the calendar for 2025. First up is Kathryn Pemberton, one of our training team for the Practitioner Course. She will lead a day on CAT and Eating Disorders on Friday 21st March in Manchester. This will be an opportunity to think creatively with colleagues about this area of work. Kathryn will share her approach from assessment to follow up sessions, through to team enactments. She will draw on her own specialised practice in this area. The day will provide space to think about both process and content in therapy, and reflect on use of self in clinical practice.

Next up, Jenny Marshall and David Harvey are co-leading a day on CAT Reflective Practice: Skills for Facilitation on Thursday 8th May in Manchester. Reflective practice has become a staple of using CAT in support of teams and services, and there is much demand for it from a number of sectors. However even seasoned CATs may have found that while offering this as an intervention, they may not have had an opportunity for CAT-specific learning around the area. Alongside her trainer role with the Practitioner training, Jenny has of course co-authored a book specifically about applications of reflective practice in forensic work. David penned a chapter for this too. They will bring their collective experience, and help you reflect on the RP facilitator role. You can practise skills in a safe learning environment with colleagues. The day will help you create your own development plan going forward, whatever your level of experience.

You can book on to one or both by following the links above. We look forward seeing some of you there.

Leadership on Repeat – Feb 2025

CPD

There’s been such demand for David Harvey’s ‘CAT as a Tool for Leadership’ online event on 31 January, we’ve almost filled a repeat online event the following week. A few spaces remain so if you’re keen to learn more about how David applies the Multiple Self States Model to a leadership context, book your place soon. It takes place on Friday 7 February and you can book via the link at CAT as a Tool for Leadership – sixth run.

Update 18th December 2024: Fully booked (again)