Category Archives: CAT Practitioner Training

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.

Update April 2025

*If you need to complete a two day introductory course in CAT, we are about to announce details of a Manchester-based in-person introduction on 24-25 June. Check back to the Forthcoming Events page for further updates.

Wordcloud image showing feedback from the last Catalyse Practitioner Trainee cohort on their last day of teaching, in greens, blue and black

Applications to the 2024 CAT Practitioner Training are now open

CAT Practitioner Training

Do you wish to apply to train with us as a Cognitive Analytic Therapy Practitioner in 2024? Then be aware that the course is now open to applications. The deadline this year falls on Friday 31st May, and interviews will be held on Friday 28th June. All the details you’ll need are available on the course page or in the downloads included there. You’ll find the page at this link: 2024 ~ 2026 Practitioner Training.

In addition to welcoming applications from those applying through the usual funding routes, 2024 is our second year as an approved provider delivering the NHS England (NHSE) national curriculum CAT Practitioner training. Those not seeking NHSE funding can apply at any time between now and the end of May.

If you are interested in applying through the NHS England (NHSE) funding route, you’ll need to observe a number of requirements and time points in the process

  1. You will meet the usual entry criteria for the course.
  2. You will have a role in community services with adults (including older adults) with complex relational problems and adverse childhood experience. Typically your client group will be likely to meet criteria for a diagnosis of ‘Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.’
  3. Your NHS employer will be situated in the North West or Midlands areas.
  4. Your application must be supported by your employing NHS Trust’s Chief Psychological Professions Officer (CPPO) and/or have approval of your NHSE Workforce, Training & Education regional lead.
  5. Please note that central NHSE funding decisions will not be made until April 2024. We therefore cannot tell you as yet how many NHSE funded places are available for the 2024 intake. However we will post updates as soon as we can at the dedicated page for NHSE-funded applications. If you are interested in this route therefore please liaise after this date with your CPPO and/ or contact your NHSE Workforce, Training & Education regional lead.

We hope that the information we’ve provided through our pages and downloads answers all your queries at this early stage. As a small and busy organisation, our administrative team may not be able to respond to additional enquiries.

Finally you may be curious about the image we’ve used to on this blog and the course page. It represents a selection of comments shared by trainees from our 2021 intake on their last day of course teaching. The final two-day residential included reflection on ending the taught part of the course. You can see the whole wordcloud image below (with thanks all who gave permission for their feedback to be used to help promote the training.)

We look forward to receiving your applications by the end of May.

Wordcloud image showing feedback from the last Catalyse Practitioner Trainee cohort on their last day of teaching, in greens, blue and black

Coming soon – CAT Practitioner Training for 2024 Intake

CAT Practitioner Training

We’ll be adding details about the next intake for our CAT Practitioner Training, commencing October 2024, to the site very soon. Everything you need to know will be there, including the process for people hoping to apply through the NHS England (NHSE) funding route. If you want to receive an email alert about this, then contact us so that we can add you to our mailing list for this and other Catalyse news and events.

CAT Practitioner Training 2023 – Recruitment Update

CAT Practitioner Training,

Sarah Littlejohn and the recruitment team extend a big thankyou to everyone who expressed interest in this year’s intake for our CAT Practitioner training course. We had a very high number of applicants this year and they have been of an extremely high standard.

We’ve now sent offers out, and have a reserve list, for the October 2023 intake. Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to offer a place to all those who were suitable.

Likewise, unfortunately this year we have not been able to offer an interview to all of those who applied. We expect it’s unlikely that there will be spare places remaining. However if we find that there are, then we may approach those not yet interviewed to ask if they’d still like to be considered.

Our current plan is to continue to run the course annually. So if you’ve been disappointed this year, we’d be pleased to welcome your application for the October 2024 cohort. For those candidates seeking NHS England funding for their training, this will be available next year too. Further good news is that we understand there will be a greater number of places available through NHSE in 2024. Details will be released in good time for the next cohort.