Conference Information

RATIONALE ABOUT COGNITIVE ANALYTIC THERAPY (CAT)  AND THE 8th ICATA CONFERENCE

Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) was developed in the early 1980’s by Dr Anthony Ryle at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London. CAT developed as a public health response to the mental health needs of a busy inner London area, and this concern with access and equity remains at the heart of the model. He felt it important to offer a short-term focused therapy for use in the health service; a therapy that integrated the best of different approaches to people’s problems and that could be researched and refined with the growing experience of clients and therapists.

CAT mostly established in the UK supported by the work of the Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy (ACAT) with 900 members, has been developed  in many other countries through National  CAT Associations, including  Australia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, India, Hong Kong.

The International Cognitive-Analytic Therapy Association (ICATA) as a federation of National Associations for CAT, has been then constituted to support, promote, and facilitate dialogue and consensus among clinicians practicing psychotherapy.

The 8th ICATA Conference, to be held in Ferrara Italy June 27-29, 2019, jointly organized by the Institute of Psychiatry, University of Ferrara, ICATA and the Italian Association of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (ITACAT) aims at extending the knowledge of CAT among psychotherapists and to explore  the several components of psychotherapy (cognitive, analytic, humanistic, interpersonal, relational, philosophical and neurobiological). It will be a  great opportunity to open up a dialogue amongst different forms of psychotherapy in order to implement its application within the integrated recovery-oriented intervention (including rehabilitation and psychopharmacology) in mental health departments and services, as well as in training institutions. A series of renowned key-note speakers and presenters in plenary sessions and symposia have already confirmed their participation to share  their clinical and research experience in the treatment of several psychopathological disorders (including personality, mood, anxiety and psychotic spectrum  disorders) and challenging clinical situations.

The main themes emerging form the 8th ICATA Conference will be published in the The International Journal of Cognitive Analytic Therapy & Relational Mental Health which has the aim to promote a broad relational understanding of psychotherapy and the wider context of mental health treatment and care.