First hand experiences of cognitive analytic therapy

“Cognitive analytic therapy helped me to link my symptoms around food with deeper issues around how I relate to others in my personal life. It always felt like it was tailored to my individual circumstances as opposed to being manualised therapy which I have had in the past.

Precisely because I was not forced to change my symptoms, I could understand how they had developed and were being maintained and thus felt more motivated to change how I am with food and others, with my therapist standing alongside me.” (Feedback from an anonymous service user with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa who had CAT)

Read more accounts from people who have had CAT as a therapy in the past by clicking on the links below.

Personal Experience of CAT: Stories Are Powerful

Revisiting CAT at a Time of Coronavirus

Letting Go Of My Therapist

ACAT website pages

There are also a number of first hand accounts of therapy on the main ACAT website. Click on the links below to read:

• Cognitive Analytic Therapy or Can You Make a Mad Man Sane?
• Borderline Personality Disorder and Cognitive Analytic Therapy – a personal acount
• A suitable case for treatment: CAT and diabetes

Reformulation journal articles

Our journal, Reformulation, publishes a range of articles for members which are openly available online a year after publication.

An article in 2016 included an account of ending letters shared between a client and a therapist when they completed therapy.  The client “Rosie” was keen that her experience of CAT was shared and we include a link to this article here:

• “It’s like putting on a new pair of glasses” – article on Goodbye Letters

Another article published in 2015 gave an account of the expereince of CAT for someone who was later given a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome.  She describes how CAT helped her make sense of difficulties she had struggled with for many years, and reach a point of self-acceptance.

• Talking myself into and out of Asperger’s Syndrome: Using Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) to rethink normal

Recovery College website pages

Recovery College Online article about CAT – this resource is offered via the Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust.  It includes a page describing cognitive analytic therapy and also a first hand account by someone who had a longer term CAT

• Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT): Real Life Experience

Books and book chapters

Two recent books have also featured first hand accounts of CAT as a therapy, including:

• Talk Yourself Better: A confused person’s guide to therapy, counselling and self-help by Ariane Sherine (2018)  This also includes a description of CAT in a conversation between the author and CAT psychotherapist, Eliabeth Wilde McCormick
• Personal Experiences of Psychological Therapy for Psychosis and Related Experiences Edited by Peter Taylor, Olympia Gianfrancesco, Naomi Fisher (2019) – Chapter 5 by Alex and Claire Seddon