Forthcoming CPD Event
Cognitive Analytic Therapy as a Tool for Leadership
A one day online workshop led by David Harvey, Cognitive Analytic Therapist and Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Date: Friday 12th December 2025
Time: 9:30am to 4:30pm
Online Event: via Zoom platform
Fees: ACAT member :: £130.00
non-ACAT member :: £145.00
[You or your employer can request to be invoiced. This incurs an additional £20 fee.]
Overview of workshop
This is the seventh run of David Harvey’s very popular one day workshop on how CAT concepts can be usefully adapted and applied in a leadership context. David introduces participants to the CAT understanding of trauma using the Multiple Self States Model. He goes on to apply this as a tool for leadership with systems and teams. Throughout the day he uses cognitive analytic therapy ideas to conceptualise the overwhelming challenges that teams face when working with people with complex presentations and high levels of risk. Participants are able to explore and apply applications of this model to help guide action and leadership in such contexts.
The first time David ran this event in September 2020 was during lockdown. He was in fact our first facilitator to deliver a CPD day online. He has gone on to deliver it several times over the last five years, both as an open event through our CPD programme and tailored for NHS Trusts.In both online and in-person formats, his day has been consistently well received. We hope a further repeat using an online format helps keep the day accessible.
All attendees receive an attendance certificate following the event, for their CPD records.
Aims and learning outcomes
Participants will have an opportunity to:
- consider how teams and systems respond to emotional and organisational pressures in ways that inadvertently mirror trauma responses
- explore how ‘traumatised system behaviour’ can disrupt effective team working, block pathways through services, delay discharge, impair coordinated care and threaten partnership and multi-agency working
- apply the CAT model of trauma to conceptualise these system problems, generate responses that minimise their impact, and so improve service user care and public protection
- consider how staff and team care can be enhanced by using this model.
Who is it for?
This event is relevant for all professionals tasked with leading or influencing other colleagues, teams or systems supporting service users with complex needs and/or high risks.
Some feedback from the last two runs of this event:
“I felt key CAT ideas were used intuitively and simply to help make sense of very complex workplace / organisational dynamics. David had a really warm, engaging style and I felt he really distilled the key messages of how to think and help teams using CAT in a really helpful way. I felt like I came away from the day with a lot more confidence, both in terms of using CAT implicitly and helping teams more generally.”
“The style of presenting interwoven with enough tasks and breakout areas was really well balanced for me and supported me to engage and think. I really appreciated the opportunity for the free-writing exercise as it allowed me to just pause and integrate the information in the course with my own existing experience, but without having to share or ‘explain’ this with others (yet). I enjoyed David’s style of presenting and engaging manner … lots of wisdom and experience shared in a very accessible and CAT-therapist-friendly way.”
“Space to think and map, peer supervision, use of theory applied to organisational practice, flexibility of the trainer in responding to the group wishes and needs.”
“This should be essential learning for Trust boards most of whom are uninformed on trauma related work or systemic RRPs. It works at different levels within the trust but should be mandatory for managers …… looking for more innovative ways of eliciting change and reflecting systemic dysfunction. The breaks were very important as well and the way in which it was interactive was excellent.”
Facilitator
David Harvey is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Cognitive Analytic Therapy Practitioner. He worked firstly in forensic inpatient and community services in Yorkshire. More recently he has been developing psychological services overseas. For over fifteen years he has worked in services supporting people with complex mental health needs, who may pose a risk of harm to others or themselves. This includes work with the NHS, Probation, Courts, Children’s Services and Prisons.
David has a particular interest in how effective working and proportionate risk management can become disrupted when professionals, services and organisations are managing their own powerful emotional reactions to the work. Such dynamics can arise through work with people with clinical presentations that can challenge services, such as those likely to attract diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’. David has become increasingly attracted to how the application of psychological theory, including CAT, outside of the therapy room may be one way in which the multiple and complex needs of many stakeholders can be considered and carefully balanced.
He has taught on these topics and also published associated chapters. These include two publications in 2024:
- Oxford Handbook Of Cognitive Analytic Therapy and
- Innovative Practice in Forensic Settings: A Cognitive Analytic Approach to Effective Relational Work.
Online platform
The event will be delivered over the Zoom platform.
Group Size
A maximum of twenty-five participants can attend this course.
Booking Information
Book your place through the booking button below. Alternatively, you or your employer can request to be invoiced. This incurs a £20 administrative fee. (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 booking your place, please ensure you read and understand our terms and conditions.
