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This course is for individuals or teams who work with clients experiencing distress & mental health difficulties in a variety of roles whose primary role is not the provision of psychological therapy.
Including (but not limited to):
Team or Service Management; Care-Coordination; Risk Assessment and Management; Support and Monitoring individuals & Families; Responsible Clinician and Approved Mental Health Roles
This participative workshop will introduce key Cognitive Analytic concepts and their application to non-therapy work including assessment, case formulation, care planning and management and risk assessment and management.
Participants will be introduced to Cognitive Analytic concepts as a shared tool to aid recognition and revision of damaging relational patterns which repeat in restrictive, unhelpful and at times extreme and damaging (e.g. aggression/rejection towards others, forms of self-harm/neglect). On this skills-based course this repetition will be understood within the client-worker relationship and other relationships, including with themselves (self-care), in multi-professional teams and understanding and monitoring risk. CAT’s understanding is that, unless revised, these internalised experiences are repeatedly re-enacted in current patterns of relating with self and others.
Participants will, through learning to draw out these repeating patterns and their relational origins, gain a Cognitive Analytic perspective that clearly describes and makes sense of these patterns, and what keeps clients and professionals stuck. Through shared recognition of these patterns (which manifest as thoughts, behaviours, emotions and symptoms) improved management and change is possible.
This rich understanding will enhance clinical conceptualisations by offering participants a framework in which to make sense of and
This two day introductory course will provide a relational understanding of your clients to enhance your usual role and practice, in the context of your everyday work.
Who is this workshop for?
Participants will be employed in Health, Social Care, Probation and Prison Settings, and have some familiarity with psychological approaches and interest in and aptitude for interpersonal and relational approaches.
The course serves as a good foundation for developing some clinical skills and development of skills in reflective practice in teams.
What will I learn from the course?
An introduction to using Cognitive Analytic principles, concepts, and tools to provide a psychological and relational framework to think about and conceptualise clinical work in the following areas:
Course Trainers:

Dr Karen Shannon and Dr Marisol Cavieres, Clinical Psychologists and CAT Practitioners, have been teaching CAT for many years in the UK and abroad.
Testimonials from the Two Day Introductory Workshop held in Liverpool in February 2014:
"It was pitched at the right level, I acknowledged I can do this (become involved in repeating the client's unhelpful patterns), and apply what I know and stand back and review"
"It was important to have a framework for all interactions, to help provide consistency in current and subsequent interactions with clients"
"Being able to do a formulation in simple terms, analysis and multiple practical exercises, with practical application relevant to each speciality"
"I learnt a great deal considering it was only a two day course"
8th July 2025
ACAT: Two Day Introduction to CAT - Online
9th September 2025
ACAT: Two Day Introduction to CAT - Online
11th November 2025
ACAT: Two Day Introduction to CAT - Online
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