Cognitive Analytic Therapy

[Divrom]

Hi folks,

My psychologist is keen to start Cognitive Analytic Therapy with me. Has anyone else had this?

In some ways it seems ideal for me. However, part of it seems to be about challenging Black & White thinking. Now, as I cannot tell whether I tend to be b&w due to aspergers, my thinking style, personality, or a mix of it all, I'm not sure if this is going to work.

I've got a feeling it will either be perfect for me, or a frustrating waste of time!

Does anyone else have experience with it?

 

[Vixxy]

Hi folks,

My psychologist is keen to start Cognitive Analytic Therapy with me. Has anyone else had this?

In some ways it seems ideal for me. However, part of it seems to be about challenging Black & White thinking. Now, as I cannot tell whether I tend to be b&w due to aspergers, my thinking style, personality, or a mix of it all, I'm not sure if this is going to work.

I've got a feeling it will either be perfect for me, or a frustrating waste of time!

Does anyone else have experience with it?

Hi Divrom
I am actually a qualified CAT therapist, aswell as being on the spectrum myself so am in a sort of unique position to answer this one as had to have the therapy as part of my training as well as being a therapist. As CAT is a relational therapy it helps you to reflect on patterns of relating with others that may be unhelpful and help you to develop 'exits' (alternative ways of relating that can help you. The therapy uses techniques like talking about an event where things may have not gone as well as you would have liked or where people may have just completely bamboozled you and puts this into structures (e.g., BAPARF- belief, Aim, plan, action, response, feedback) to help think about these objectively and also helps you to identify some black and white thinking and try to find and experiment with an alternative set of internal rules that 'you' develop with the therapist. Wiki has a great explanation of the therapy in more detail. I personally found it really helpful. I also felt understood as a CAT therapist's role isn't to take over or try to impose their understanding or make you do things you feel uncomfortable with, its very collaborative and the idea is you develop a 'reformulation' of how we perceive your identity and then you choose areas you want to work on. As a therapist, I have worked with several people with autism and the feedback I keep getting is 'the therapy helped me to understand me and I felt understood by another'; all of them have had good outcomes and have developed some new skills/scripts for dealing with life and in recognising problematic cycles in their lives and discovering more adaptive ways to cope with these. You don't have to commit to the full therapy; some people come for the first 4 sessions, after which the therapist goes through the reformulation (their understanding of you from the previous sessions) and some people say that is as far as they want to go (having greater understanding) and others decide that they would like to complete the therapy (either a block of 8, 16 or 24 sessions-agreed at reformulation) to work on some of the areas they are bringing to work on. I think it is an ideal therapy for people on the spectrum 'because' it is relational (although clearly have my own personal bias) and would heartedly recommend just going along, even for one session and see whether you think you can work with the therapist as irrespective of the model of therapy, feeling comfortable with your therapist is one of the most important components of a therapy.