"How mapping and writing in session with clients changed my understanding and practice of CAT"

This one day CPD workshop will demonstrate and offer space to learn and practice new ways of thinking about the joint, in-session activity of writing and mapping in therapy and supervision. I will talk about CAT as a systemic, interpersonal and narrative therapy, focusing on the practice of writing short letters to give voice to and clarify patterns of relating in the room and to work with difficult memories, developing the client's narrative competence and reflective capacity. We will look at this in the context both of the therapy room and clinical supervision, using the ideas to develop both our own and others' practice. I will give examples and take us back to the core concepts of reciprocal roles and procedural sequence, with time to practice and reflect on pathways to building and testing our skills. Participants will have a workbook of ideas to take away and to try out in their current CAT practice or supervision.

Steve Potter is the author of Therapy with a Map and is a past Chairperson of ACAT and ICATA and has taught CAT to many groups over many years from beginners to experts. He thinks that the CAT communities around the world still have much scope to innovate and develop at the heart of the model and its methods. In this CPD workshop he will revisit the key tools of Cognitive Analytic Therapy, focusing on developing innovative ways of practice in clinical practice and in supervision and on how it is the co-created relationship in the room that is the beginning and end of therapy.

Venue: Lecture Theatre, Sussex Education Centre, Millview Hospital Site, Hove, BN3 7HZ

Registration: 9.30am. Start: 10.00am Finish: 5.00pm.

SPFT Staff Free

All Others £50

Steve Potter is a CAT psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer working independently. He is a past chair of ACAT and the International Association of Cognitive Analytic Therapy and co editor of the International Journal of Cognitive Analytic Therapy and Relational Mental Health www.internationalcat.org/journals and is author of two books on CAT and its relational and integrative approaches and various chapters and articles (www.mapandandtalk.com). He is a life member of ACAT and lives in East London and is chair of his local residents association. He is keen to see CAT's relational tools and concepts applied in and beyond the therapy room with teams, and organisations and in wider society and has spent the last twenty years developing an approach to reflective practice called Map and Talk.