Tessa Sheaf MA, MTh, M.Ed, ACAT registered, UKCP registered dipCouns,dip CAT

Waveney House Radley Road Abingdon Oxford OX14 3PP View map
01235 531029 Click here to Email me

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Cognitive Analytic Therapist and Psychodynamic Counsellor, registered with UKCP and ACAT. I do both short term focused therapy using the Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) model and longer term therapy.

CAT is a collaborative model in which both the therapist and client work together to build up a useful tool called a "map" in which the client can see how former unhelpful patterns of behaviour initially got established, how they operate now and how they might be changed.

In the 4th session I present the client with a letter which aims at presenting the picture I have gained of the client's history, presenting problems and what the client wants from therapy. Whatever the client may object to in the letter is changed before the next session. In this way the letter - called a reformulation letter - is owned by both therapist and client and becomes a shared collaborative tool in the process of therapy. Shared targets and aims are agreed upon and we work collaboratively on the map.

The ending of therapy is taken seriously. We work together towards the ending and exchange goodbye letters in the final session. The client by this time will have come to recognise unhelpful behaviour patterns and learnt to change them. He/she will by now be familiar with the map, jointly created in the sessions, and be able to live a fuller, happier life through having learnt new, more helpful behaviour patterns.