Cognitive Analytic Therapy, or CAT, is a talking therapy that helps you make sense of patterns in how you think, feel, and relate to others and how those patterns might be causing distress or holding you back. It’s a collaborative and structured approach that focuses on understanding why you might be stuck, and how to move forward.

CAT is based on the idea that we all develop certain ways of relating to people, often as a result of our early experiences. Sometimes, those patterns – though they once helped us – can become unhelpful in adult life. For example, you might find yourself feeling easily rejected, putting others’ needs first, or getting caught in cycles of striving to meet expectations and then criticising yourlsef harshly. CAT helps you explore these patterns with compassion and curiosity, not judgment.

CAT is a relational therapy, aiming to make sense of the ways in which people relate to each other and to themselves. Unlike CBT that focuses on the thoughts, feelings and behaviour within an individual person, CAT explores the relational patterns that play out between people. Importantly, these relational patterns can also play out within us (for example we can criticise ourselves or push ourselves too hard). The Reciprocal Role is a key concept in CAT and forms the basis of diagrams that help you map out these patterns clearly and visually. This map helps both of you understand what’s going on and find new, healthier ways of interacting.

The written word is also important in CAT. Sometimes there are letters exchanged summarising what you’ve worked on and offering reflections. On other occasions, briefer writing might be used to write to others in your life (whether the letters are shared with them or not). This process can bring real clarity and emotional depth to the work.

CAT is usually time-limited—often around 16 to 24 sessions—and it’s designed to be practical and focused. It aims to help you understand yourself more deeply and build lasting change in how you relate to yourself and others.

If you’re feeling stuck in familiar emotional or relationship patterns and want a structured, compassionate space to understand and change them, CAT could be a good fit for you.