Mental health is a worldwide problem facing people of all ages and gender, regardless of race or tribe. And with the COVID-19 pandemic adding to the burden, many people are falling into depression, developing anxiety, and having life problems, now more than ever.
More than 40 million adult citizens are diagnosed with depression and other mental health conditions each year in the US. And out of them, only 36% seek medical help. And since the pharmaceutical drugs used to treat these conditions result in harmful side effects, doctors are progressively looking for alternative treatment methods.
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One of these management options involves Cognitive Analytic Therapy or CAT therapy. This is now considered the ultimate therapy session for conditions ranging from personality disorders to eating disorders.
What is CAT Therapy?
CAT therapy is a type of therapy session that seeks to understand why, how, and when you behave in a certain way. That means coupling analytic psychology and cognitive behavior analysis to understand better how you feel, think, and behave.
Once the doctor understands what you are going through, they are better positioned to help you. And depending on the problem you are dealing with, these sessions can last between four and 24 weeks to bring about successful results.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) involves two parts:
1. Analytic part
This seeks to explore your previous experience and find a link between them and your current situation. An accredited medical professional determines how your previous life is affecting your daily life now.
2. Cognitive part
This part borrows a lot from cognitive behavioral therapy. Once your physician understands your background, they will help you find ways to cope with your current situation. After identifying different alternatives, they try them out to determine their effectiveness. Thus, they prescribe the best, most healthy, and beneficial techniques or tools for your mental health.
Mental Health Therapy
How Does CBT Differ from CAT?
Both Cognitive-Behavioral(CBT) and Cognitive Analytic Therapy is short term prescriptions. Each involves a licensed mental health provider’s services to support you find the best solution or technique to help you deal with psychological issues.
CAT seeks to find a relationship between your past and your current actions or conditions. On the other hand, CBT focuses more on your thoughts, actions, and feelings in the present and how to cope with them.
Does CAT Really Work?
Cognitive Analytic work is one of the few active therapy sessions that ensure the individual is in charge. This means you are the one to open up about your past to the doctor only if you are willing to do so.
The therapy sessions are specifically designed to suit each patient’s needs. When talking about your past, you participate in finding the problem, which makes it even easier to solve.
Therapists work to find any behaviors you might have learned in your past that are causing problems in your current life. Once you identify the problem, the health care provider then explains how any changes could affect your life.
If you choose to cooperate with your therapist, you will have devised better methods of making fitting choices in your life, which inevitably helps you deal with difficult situations better.
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Where Can You Get CAT Therapy Sessions?
Once you’ve accepted that you need help getting over a situation or circumstance in your life, you then, reach out to a therapist. After getting in touch with a licensed and registered mental health professional, you can receive CAT therapy from them.
The overall schedule includes:
- In the first few sessions, you talk about your past openly with your therapist. Here, the therapist seeks to establish a connection with you and find out more about your past life.
- Filling out questionnaires given by the therapist to determine your moods and symptoms- the doctor gets a better understanding of your behavior.
- You work with the therapist to map your behavioral patterns, to find the source of the issue.
- The CAT therapy ends with an overview of how you started and how you are doing, after which the doctor can help you determine the best way to move forward.
CAT Therapy Sessions Facts
Which Conditions Can CAT Therapy Help?
If you have a condition instigated by an underlying reason or cause, then CAT therapy is for you. And since these therapy sessions treat the whole being, it applies to many fields rather than the condition.
Some conditions that have proven to get better after therapy include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive disorders
- Addictions
- Phobias
- Relationship issues
- Personality disorders
What Problems Face CAT Therapy?
Failure to reach a conclusive decision on whether or not CAT is as effective as advertised hinges on significant factors:
- The groups under investigation have often comprised small numbers of people, making it hard to translate the results to a larger population.
- Some patients feel like the therapists lack a basic understanding of their situation, which results in them sharing only half of the truth.
Once these problems facing CAT therapy are eliminated, we can draw a definite conclusion on the effectiveness of CAT therapy.
With this said, seeking help when facing difficult situations is indeed the first step towards finding a solution. Moreover, if you want to play a part in identifying the problem and devising a solution to help you cope, then CAT therapy is the way to go.
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CAT therapy is showing tremendous success among patients, and therapists. With CAT therapy, you play a part in your healing process and can cope with situations better.
To find out more about where you can find qualified and licensed CAT therapists, hospitals, and clinics near you, contact us or visit our website.
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