Forthcoming Catalyse Event
An Introduction to Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)
A two day face-to-face workshop led by Sarah Littlejohn and Jo Coggins*
Date: Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th June 2025
Time: 9.30 am to 4.30 pm each day
Venue: Central Manchester venue tbc
Fees: £200.00
The event fee includes refreshments throughout both days but does not include lunch. [You or your employer can request to be invoiced – this incurs an additional £20 fee.]
Overview of workshop
This two day face-to-face workshop provides participants with an introduction to Cognitive Analytic Therapy. Through a combination of brief theoretical presentations, video-based scenarios and live experiential exercises, you will have an opportunity to understand CAT concepts and practise using some of the key skills involved.
Catalyse trainers*, Sarah Littlejohn and Jo Coggins will aid exploration of different ways the CAT approach can support assessment, rapid formulation and psychological therapy. They model using CAT as a highly collaborative tool to help make sense of relational difficulties and common psychological symptoms, alongside working with problem patterns in the therapy relationship itself. Finally, they also covers CAT’s approach to managing therapeutic endings in a thoughtful and constructive way.
They use clinical examples and role play to help demonstrate use of CAT in action. Additionally, the day will inclide excerpts from a series of Training Films depicting a fictional CAT therapy. Catalyse developed these films for training purposes, and embed them throughout Practitioner Training.
Throughout the days participants will have the chance to work with each other in pairs and small groups.
All participants will receive an attendance certificate for your CPD records.
Aims and learning outcomes
Over the two days, Sarah and Jo will focus on:
- introducing Cognitive Analytic concepts and methods
- demonstrating how to draw out or “map” diagrams of problematic, repeating relationship patterns – they use live examples, including those from your own practice, and will support you to try out this technique
- introducing the CAT tool of letter writing – the facilitators share examples and help you practice ways of framing and summarising client narratives, histories, presenting problems and repeating problematic patterns through writing
- aiding understanding of CAT’s theory of therapeutic change, and how to develop alternative relationship patterns and roles
- exploring how CAT can be used to understand relational patterns in therapy, help predict issues associated with poor motivation and engagement, and work with endings
Please note that attending this course does not lead to any professional qualification in Cognitive Analytic Therapy and does not qualify participants to deliver this therapy approach. For those interested in looking into further training or supervision in CAT, information and signposting to options for these are provided.
Who is it for?
This event is for anybody interested in learning more about cognitive analytic therapy.
Applicants to the Catalyse CAT Practitioner Training are required to have attended a two-day introductory course on CAT (or equivalent). This course is therefore ideal for those intending to apply in 2025. Working with two trainers who deliver the Catalyse Practitioner Training provides a taster of the teaching style on the course.
Feedback from the last run of this event (2024)
“I really valued the whole 2 days. The exercises and activities gave the opportunity to immediately put the content into practice. I was able to clearly see how to apply the content in my therapeutic work. There were also some really nice, meaningful exercises that I will take forward …….. It felt like the whole group were really engaged and excited about using CAT.”
“The training was really enjoyable and engaging, the training was readily translated to clinical practice. I came away from the training really enthused to work in a CAT informed way. The facilitator was very knowledgeable. The two days were a pleasure to attend. They were able to engage all – from those that were new to CAT and those with more clinical experience. Case examples were used throughout the training and this really helped to demonstrate the key features of CAT.“
Scroll down for more feedback on the July 2024 introductory training.
Facilitators
Sarah Littlejohn is a CAT psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. She originally trained as an integrative psychotherapist over thirty years ago and qualified as a CAT practitioner in 2001. She’s been a lead trainer for the Catalyse Practitioner Training for many years. In addition to her training role, Sarah has also provided supervision for CAT practitioner and CAT psychotherapy level trainings. She’s been a past chair of ACAT’s Training Committee and is currently co-chair of the Catalyse Executive. She’s particularly interested in how CAT provides a framework for the early formulation of complexity, and uses of the therapeutic relationship.
Jo Coggins is an accredited CAT practitioner, supervisor and trainer with a professional background in clinical psychology. She has over 15 years experience in the NHS. In her current NHS role she delivers CAT and other therapies in an Talking Therapies (previously IAPT) service setting. Additionally Jo provides consultation and supervision to staff working with clients with complex needs. She is a core trainer and cohort tutor for the Catalyse CAT Practitioner training course and oversees recruitment to the CAT Practitioner training course. In her Catalyse role Jo also provides introductory training in CAT Skills to teams in both the NHS and third sector, in addition to offering this introduction to CT as a therapy.
* In rhe event that one of the faciliators is unavailable, another of the Catalyse team, Rhona Brown, will co-deliver.
Location
The venue will be in Central Manchester – more details to follow.
Group Size
A maximum of thirty participants can attend this course.
Booking Information
We advise early booking to secure your place. You can join a waiting list once the day is fully subscribed, in case of cancellations.
For online booking, follow the link below. When you pay online, you will automatically receive a receipt. You can also request a receipt from the Catalyse administrator.
If you require invoicing, there is an additional charge of £20.00. Please contact the administrator to inform us that you intend to book. You may download the booking form by scrolling to the end of this page. (Please note that for invoiced applications, if payment is not received within 60 days of the invoice date, the delegate will be liable for payment of this fee.)
Terms and Conditions
Before proceeding to book and pay for this event, please ensure you read and understand our terms and conditions.
Further participant feedback on the previous event
We asked participants what they found “most useful, interesting or enjoyable” about the previous introductory CAT workshop held in July 2024. Some responses (shared with permission) are listed below.
“An excellent facilitator, who is clearly very knowledgeable and experienced with delivering CAT and training. It was transferable to my role. It was well paced, and interactive.”
“The teaching style.”
“I really enjoyed some of the personal and work related experiences Sarah shared with us as it brought a great ‘human’ element to the training which made it relatable and will stick with me for a long time.”
“The content and the way it was delivered. Excellent facilitator/trainer. Boundaried structure which was in keeping with the content.”
“Found very useful really enjoyed bringing to life a real case and building on that across two days from start to finish to show the CAT process.”
“The participative activities enabled me to put into place and experiment with the skills that were being taught. There was a good balance of participation and taught content.”
“Being able to meet other people on the course in person and network, and to put things into practice in the room to help make sense of our learning.”
