Introducing Cognitive Analytic Therapy

Introduces the principles and applications of cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)   Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is an increasingly popular approach to therapy that is now widely recognised as a genuinely integrative and fundamentally relational model of psychotherapy. This new edition of the definitive text to CAT offers a systematic and comprehensive introduction to its origins, development, and practice. It also provides a fully updated overview of developments in the theory, research, and applications of CAT, including clarification and re-statement of basic concepts, such as reciprocal roles and reciprocal role procedures, as well as extensions into new areas of expertise. Introducing Cognitive Analytic Principles and Practice of a Relational Approach to Mental Health, 2 nd  Edition  starts with a brief account of the scope and focus of CAT and how it evolved and explains the main features of its practice. It next offers a brief account of a relatively straightforward therapy to give readers a sense of the unfolding structure and style of a time-limited CAT. Following that are chapters that consider the normal and abnormal development of the Self and that introduce influential concepts from Vygotskian, Bakhtinian and developmental psychology. Subsequent chapters describe selection and assessment; reformulation; the course of therapy; the ‘ideal model’ of therapist activity and its relation to the supervision of therapists; applications of CAT in various patient groups and settings and in treating personality type disorders; use in ‘reflective practice'; a CAT perspective on the ‘difficult’ patient; and systemic and ‘contextual’ approaches. Introducing Cognitive Analytic Therapy  is the definitive book for CAT practitioners and CAT trainees at skills, practitioner, and psychotherapy levels. It should also be of considerable interest and relevance to mental health professionals of all orientations, including clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, mental health nurses, to those working in forensic and various institutional settings, and to a range of other health care and social work professionals.