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ACAT Annual National Conference
10th July 2014 to 12th July 2014

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"Celebrating 30 years of Cognitive Analytic Therapy: Culture, Identity and Pride"

Creative Campus, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool

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“Who are we, if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? Each life is an encyclopaedia, a library, an inventory of objects, a series of styles, and everything can be constantly reshuffled and reordered in every conceivable way” – Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium

ACAT would like to warmly invite you to the historical City of Liverpool to celebrate 30 years of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)

"When CAT was born I had already been involved for many years in its ante-natal care.  The vigour of the infant CAT surprised and delighted me and the family which quickly gathered round provided, and continues to provide, a stable and supportive context.  We do not rely on techniques beyond those concerned with the best ways to embody our human values and psychological understandings in our relationships with those we seek to help. No orthodoxies restrict how we approach new problems or respond to new ideas.  My birthday wish is that these features will  ensure that CAT flourishes and spreads." Anthony Ryle

The conference theme is culture, identity and pride, which is personified within the evolving, regenerating City of Liverpool. 

The practice of CAT is being used in many different ways, within different settings and with a variety of client groups.  CAT recognises the relational and social origins of distress and offers a framework that both recognises and values identity and culture. Over the past 30 years the NHS has experienced many challenges and demands. CAT was initially developed as a short term therapy designed for an NHS that has limited resources.  Never before has this been as evident as now and as we ‘seek to extend our awareness, choice and control, we inevitably convey some more specific social values’.  

Liverpool has a dark history, being a city that largely owed its rise to prominence to the ever increasing development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that dominated the merchantable world during the late 17^th and 18^th centuries.  The consequence of that era can be seen all around us and our world has indeed been shaped by this.

There is a strong correlation between the development of the Liverpool port and docklands network giving the city an ever increasing accumulation of wealth with Liverpool’s infrastructure growing to such a degree that it allowed for even greater connections with local merchants and the far flung corners of the mercantilist world. Connections strengthened between Ireland and the industrialised North West. 

Liverpool also profited from the progress in passenger travel and the port became an important landing stage for Europeans wishing to travel to the Americas across the Atlantic.  This was particularly evident during the Irish famine of 1846-47.

Liverpool was and is a welcoming city – a place that people came to, to trade, to work, to start a new life and explore new opportunities, and this continues to be the case today.  Liverpool continues to have one of the world’s greatest ports and is now one of the world’s most diverse cosmopolitan melting pots.

All around us we continue to have inequality of opportunity, racial prejudice, ignorance, intolerance and hatred.  As David Fleming said in the speech he gave at the Opening of the International Slavery Museum in 2007, ‘all these evils will not be overcome through denial or through wishful thinking.  They have to be tackled head on and our most powerful weapon is education’.  We would like to use CAT to help us recognise these issues and to begin thinking about how we may influence both our own and the wider world's future.

We warmly welcome you to Liverpool, a city with a strong identity; a city whose richly diverse culture gives it an unmistakable identity and human personality - a fitting venue to celebrate 30 years of CAT.

Plenary Speakers

Colwyn Trevarthen, Emeritus Professor of Child Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Edinburgh - Supporting Human Conviviality and Self-Confidence: to have a place in a community of meaning with joyful pride, and for recovery from shame

Rosie Cooper MP, ACAT Ambassador

Joe Rafferty, Chief Executive of Mersey Care NHS Trust

Elaine Martin, HSE Senior Psychologist, Chair of the Irish Association of Cognitive Analytic Therapy - The Irish Psyche Narcissus: Greek myth, Irish experience

Research Presentation

RCT in CAT and Bipolar Disorder - Mark Evans and Steve Kellett

Programme (subject to change)

Updates will be added over the weeks as the programme is confirmed

Thursday, 10th July 2014

16:00 onwards - Registration opens

17:00 to 17:30 - Welcome Coffee

17:30 to 17:45 - Welcome and Housekeeping - Ruth Carson, Uma Patel, Karen Shannon - Conference Organisers

17:45 to 18:30 - Opening Plenary - Ian Kerr - Identitiy and CAT - what is it in the scheme of things?

18:30 to 19:00 - Local performers explore identity, culture and pride using narrative and verse

19:00 to 20:00 - Free time to mingle

20:00 to 22:30 - Evening meal

Friday, 11th July 2014

08:00 onwards - Registration opens

09:00 to 09:15 - Welcome and Housekeeping

09:15 to 10:45 - Opening Plenary - Rosie Cooper and Joe Rafferty, followed by Question Time

10:45 to 11:15 - Coffee break

11:15 to 12:45 - Plenary - Colwyn Trevarthen - 'Supporting Human Conviviality and Self-Confidence: to have a place in a community of meaning with joyful pride, and for recovery from shame'

12:45 to 13:45 - Lunch

13:45 to 15:15 - Workshops

15:15 to 15:45 - Coffee break

15:45 to 16:45 - AGM

16:45 to 17:00 - Short break

17:00 to 17:45 - Research Presentation – Mark Evans and Stephen Kellett - 'RCT in CAT and Bipolar Disorder'

17:45 to 19:00 - Free time to mingle and change for dinner

19:00 to 20:00 - Drinks Reception and Book Launch, with entertainment provided by the Saxophonists

20:00 to late    - Conference Dinner and entertainment 

Saturday, 12th July 2014

08:30 onwards - Registration opens for new delegates

09:15 to 09:30 - Welcome and Housekeeping

09:30 to 11:00 - Plenary - Elaine Martin - 'The Irish Psyche Narcissus: Greek Myth, Irish Experience'

11:00 to 11:30 - Coffee break

11:30 to 13:00 - Workshops

13:00 to 14:00 - Lunch

14:00 to 15:30 - Workshops

15:30 to 16:00 - Coffee break

16:00 to 17:00 - Closing Plenary - Jason Hepple and Stephen Kellett - 'CAT at 30'

Copies of the paper 'CAT at 30' will be available at the Conference.  Co-authored by Tony Ryle, Stephen Kellett, Jason Hepple and Rachel Calvert, the paper has been accepted for publication in the journal 'Advances in Psychiatric Treatment'

Question Time Panel

Rosie Cooper (MP and ACAT Ambassador), Joe Rafferty (Chief Executive of Mersey Care NHS Trust), Jason Hepple (Chair of ACAT) and Nicki Mazey (GP)

Workshops (subject to change)

Friday 13:45 - 15:15

1. Elizabeth McCormick - How to enjoy writing a prose reformulation
2. Barbara Williams - "Wounded Healing"
3. Karen Shannon with Andy Watson and Louise Heywood of the Geese Theatre Company - Using CAT and theatre to understand relational and systemic patterns surrounding chid sexual abuse (CSA)
4. Jo Varela and Phil Clayton - CAT, Care and Compassion: working therapeautically with Culture, Identity and Pride in health care providers - a dynamic reformulation of the problem procedures idenitified in the Francis Report and our own organisations
5. Palwinder Athwal and Tammy Wachter - 'They are too risky': the use of CAT in forensic settings
6. Robert Watson - Working affirmitavely with sexual minority clients
7. Deborah Tee - Bringing God, religion and spirituality into dialogues: finding a shared language in CAT

Saturday 11:30 - 13:00

1. Julie Lloyd and Hilary Brown - Argument of mainstreaming mental health service for people with ID (diagnosed and undiagnosed but presenting to mental health services)
2. Kim Dent Brown - Six-Part Story Making - the briefest possible introduction!
3. Beth Greenhill and Kieron Beard - Histories of Homotopia and Homophobia: a CAT perspective on working with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) identities in therapy and in our communities
4. Kerry Manson and Gemma Hirst - Using a combination of CAT and drama therapy to share formulations within forensic settings
5. Clive Turpin - "I can't do this" - negotiating therapy with Jean
6. Sophie Rushbrook - Working creatively with dreams in CAT

Saturday 14:00 - 15:30

1. Jason Hepple and Elizabeth McCormick - Mindfullness and yoga practice in everday life
2. Lawrence Welch - The politics of culture and identity
3. Steve Potter - Mapping the feelings of difference for individuals, groups and teams
4. John Mulhall - Using a CAT approach to inform group work with adolescent inpatients
5. Rhona Brown and Paul Harfleet - Quiet Resistance and Conceptual Shields: a CAT journey alongside the Pansy Project

Please note: booking a place on a workshop will only be possible once you are booked into the Conference

Book Launch to be held during the evening Drinks Reception on Friday, 11^th July 2014

Cognitive Analytic Therapy for people with intellectual disabilities and their carers 

- edited by Julie Lloyd and Philip Clayton

“This book has been long awaited and now the client’s voice is beginning to be heard as the conversations commence.  I can whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who seeks to learn more about CAT and how it can be used where ever words cannot be found or the conversation is faltering."  Val Crowley 

For more information about the book and to download a booking form please follow this link: http://www.acat.me.uk/news/154/

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Delegate Information

We are offering two booking options:  Whole Event and Individual Items

The Whole Event Package includes attendance from the opening of the conference on Thursday afternoon to the close of the conference on Saturday afternoon; dinner on Thursday evening; tea and coffee throughout the event; lunch on Friday and Saturday; en-suite B&B student accommodation at the venue on Thursday and Friday nights; Drinks Reception, Conference Dinner and entertainment on the Friday evening.

• Full Cost Whole Event online 
  ACAT Member £350 / Non-member £400

The option of Individual Items is for those who are unable to attend the whole event but wish to book items separately

• Full Cost online - Thursday Welcome and Dinner
  ACAT Member £60 / Non-member £70
• Full Cost online - Friday or Saturday Day Delegate with lunch and refreshments
  ACAT Member £130 / Non-member £160
• En-suite student B&B accommodation online at the venue on the Thursday or Friday night 
  ACAT Member £55 / Non-member £65
• Drinks Reception, Conference Dinner and Entertainment online on the Friday evening
  ACAT Member £40 / Non-member £50

NB an additional administration charge of £15 is to be added to each booking where an invoice is requested or payment is made by cheque

Saturday B&B: as the Conference will have ended, B&B accommodation at the venue on the Saturday night is not offered as a booking option. However, if you wish to stay for an additional night please contact Maria Cross in the first instance for availability and cost.  

Accommodation at the venue cannot be guaranteed - it is advisable to book early

Ways to book

• book and pay online instantly, via this page, using a personal credit or debit card 
• use the downloadable booking form (at the end of this page) to pay by cheque, and post to ACAT, PO Box 6793, Dorchester DT1 9DL (attracts an additional administration fee of £15)
• use the downloadable booking form (at the end of this page) to request that your employer be invoiced (providing full invoicing details where indicated) and email to maria.cross@acat.me.uk or post to ACAT, PO Box 6793, Dorchester DT1 9DL (attracts an additional administration fee of £15)

BOOKINGS CLOSE ON MONDAY, 30TH JUNE 2014

Bursary Applications - re-opened for a limited period

ACAT is pleased to be able to offer a small number of bursaries again this year to assist those in financial need to attend the Conference.  Bursaries are awarded towards the cost of the conference only and not towards additional costs such as travel etc.  If you would like to be considered please download and complete the bursary application form (at the end of this page) and email, in confidence, to maria.cross@acat.me.uk or post to Maria Cross, ACAT Administrator, PO Box 6793, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 9DL.  

Closing date: 25th June 2014

Terms

Early Bird Terms: Early Bird bookings closed on 26th February 2014

Programme changes:  ACAT reserves the right to make changes to the advertised programme

Cancellation/Refund Policy:  A refund, less a £25 administration fee, will be made if the cancellation is received in writing at least six weeks before the event.  We regret that any cancellation after this time cannot be refunded and refunds for failure to attend the event cannot be made.

Data Protection:  For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, the data controller in respect of your personal data is the Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy.  Your data will be used to administer the event to which you have subscribed.

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