Presenters: Katerina Chin-A-Loy & Lee Crothers


 Workshop aims:

· To understand the basic principles of CAT and how they apply to working alongside people with eating disorders.
· To introduce relational patterns (reciprocal roles) that typically underlie eating disorder presentations and provide practical tools (mapping) for use in formulation and intervention.
· To reflect on the professional’s/system’s role in the relational dynamics of eating distress.
· To provide clinical examples to illustrate the CAT model in the eating disorder context.

Abstract
This three-hour online workshop introduces Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) as a relational framework for understanding and working with eating disorders. CAT integrates cognitive and psychodynamic theories to explore how recurring patterns between self and others maintain distress. CAT’s transdiagnostic nature responds to the increasing complexity seen in eating disorders and its shared understanding makes it highly acceptable by clients which tends to favour engagement.

Some of the key CAT concepts, such as target problem, reciprocal roles and mapping, will be presented and discussed in the context of eating disorder work. These tools aim to illuminate the relational dynamics that underpin eating disorder symptoms and shape the therapeutic process with special attention to the therapeutic relationship.

We will use brief clinical examples to illustrate how core principles and tools of CAT can support collaborative formulation and promote change in eating disorders. Some of the clinical scenarios that will be presented will demonstrate how CAT can be used, as per below.

· To co-create a shared compassionate formulation with clients and/or families that fosters relational understanding, ownership, and motivation for change.
· To invite the whole system (family, team, services) into recognising and revising repeated relational patterns that can maintain distress or sustain family ruptures, which can be done alongside evidence-based models.
· To respond relationally (so as not to enact a dynamic that elicits more distress) to food distress or high expressed emotion in the room and/or at home, while continuing to implement an evidence-based treatment such as FBT or CBT-E.
· To engage and build trust in preparation for structured eating disorder interventions, using CAT principles to strengthen readiness and therapeutic alliance.
· To work relationally with complexity, supporting a person who may be engaged with other eating disorder specialists (for example, a dietitian) through a shared, compassionate framework of understanding.

The session will demonstrate how a relational formulation can bring together clients, families, and teams around a shared language of patterns and possibilities for change. We will reflect on the therapist’s role within these dynamics and explore how relational awareness can enhance engagement, collaboration, and recovery within evidence-based treatment models.

The webinar is suitable for clinicians and allied health professionals interested in integrating relational thinking and CAT tools into their work with eating disorders and complexity.

Reflective questions to explore

1. How might past relational patterns shape both the development and maintenance of eating disorder symptoms?
2. What do you notice in yourself as a therapist when working with people who evoke strong responses (e.g., helplessness, protectiveness, frustration)? What might be the corresponding reciprocal role?
3. How might adopting a relational formulation (as in CAT) enhance compassion, increase therapeutic engagement and reduce burnout in this work?
 
Workshop Pricing

ANZAED Members: $150.00
Non-Members: $190.00

To register, members log in to your account. For non-members, please create a new account.  

Lee Crothers is an Occupational Therapist and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) practitioner with over twenty years’ experience in public mental health and private practice. As Co-Director of In Dialogue and Relate & Reflect and Vice-Chair of ANZACAT, she specialises in relational approaches to complex mental health and eating disorders. Lee’s work focuses on using CAT to help clients, families, and teams recognise and shift relational patterns that maintain distress, and to foster collaboration in recovery— however it is defined by the person.
 
Dr Katerina Chin-A-Loy is a clinical psychologist working in public and private mental health with over 15 years of experience working in the eating disorder field. Katerina is trained in evidence-based eating disorder specific models such as FBT, CBT-E, SSCM, while holding a psychodynamic frame. During the last few years, Katerina has been using Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) to work with eating disorders and mental health complexity. She is a credentialed eating disorder mental health practitioner (CEDC-MH) and a Psychology Board of Australia accredited supervisor.