Cognitive Analytic Therapy is an integrative therapy which looks at unhelpful patterns and behaviours we can get caught up in in our lives. These were likely to have been useful at some point, such as ‘not getting close to people in case they hurt us’ but we find they are limiting our lives now.
It uses both Analytic therapy approaches in that it looks back to your past to try and make sense of how unhelpful patterns have developed and also Cognitive approaches to actively work to find ways to improve things in the present. The relationship with your therapist is also important and allows patterns of relating to be noticed and worked on in the room. Each session lasts 50 minutes and the length of therapy is usually 16-24 weeks.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy differs from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in that there is typically more focus on understanding where the unhelpful patterns and problems have come from but similar in that it is a very active therapy focused on changing things in the present. While CBT tends to be quite ‘symptom’ focused,
CAT can focus on more than one ‘symptom’ at once as it takes a broad holistic approach to your difficulties.
Please see www.acat.me.uk for further information on CAT