Category Archives: Featured

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Research in CAT: opportunity and challenge

Featured, Job Opportunity, Research

In this guest blog, Dr Peter Taylor outlines some thoughts on the place of research on CAT, and shares news of new trial therapist opportunities in the North West and Yorkshire.

Research and Cognitive Analytic Therapy

There are many reasons why we should concern ourselves with research into CAT. Perhaps the most immediate is that, through evidencing the effectiveness of CAT, treatment guidelines can be updated to recommend it. This in turn encourages greater support and implementation of CAT within the NHS. Without supporting evidence, clinicians working within the NHS will increasingly be expected to apply other approaches. Opportunities to use CAT may diminish, limiting options for both practitioners and patients.

Beyond this practical concern though, there are other, more fundamental reasons for why research matters. I would argue that we owe it to our patients to stay curious, to seek to better understand where CAT can be helpful, and for whom. Likewise we should aim to evaluate where and how other approaches may be better placed to help. Given that research matters, it is positive that we are seeing steady progress in terms of research investigating CAT.

Relational approaches to treating self-harm

The RELATE trial (relational approaches to treating self-harm) was the first NIHR funded trial of CAT. We have now completed it, and are just working on publishing the associated papers. This was a feasibility trial looking at 8-session CAT as an intervention for self-harm in adults. In brief the results are positive, supporting the feasibility of evaluating CAT within a trial context. They indicate that this approach holds promise and warrants further evaluation. Through our work on RELATE I have heard from other clinicians and researchers across the UK who are exploring opportunities for further research into CAT, which is encouraging.

In other positive news we have successfully secured funding for another feasibility trial of 8-session CAT for self-harm. The trial is specific to young people aged 13 to 17 years. This is an important group, as we know self-harm often has its onset in adolescence. There is an opportunity here for early intervention that may lead to lasting change. We also know that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are often encountering high rates of self-harm and in need of therapies that can help support young people struggling with such experiences. The trial is imaginatively called RELATE-YP (Relational Approach to Working with Young People who Self-Harm). It is due to begin in December 2025.

Bringing an opportunity to fruition

These recent funding successes, whilst modest in scale when it comes to trials, suggest that funders are increasingly open to research into CAT. Obtaining funding is one thing though. The challenge we have now, to successfully set up and run this trial, is no mean feat. We will require trial therapists to help deliver the therapy who are:

  • CAT trained, or
  • have at least completed one year of CAT training, alongside
  • experience working with young people

We will employ a trial therapist for a day a week in each of the three sites:

  • Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
  • Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, and
  • Rotherham, Doncaster, and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust

Acting in a trial therapist role can be a great opportunity for a clinician. You receive focused training and supervision in delivering CAT within this particular context. We are also aware that life happens, and people come and go from these roles for various reasons. Consequently, we also need an idea of others in the area who might be interested in a trial therapist role. If we find ourselves short of a therapist for any reason, we would look to willing others to potentially step in and pick up some cases.

So, I am finishing this blog with a call to action of sorts: If you work in one of the Trusts mentioned above and might be interested in the trial therapist role, please do get in touch.

You can contact Peter Taylor via peter.taylor-2@manchester.ac.uk

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.