posted 16th January 2026
Trauma-Informed, Relational Therapy at Taproot
When people consider starting therapy, two of the most common questions we hear are:
“Why this type of therapy?”
“How do you decide what approach to use?”
At Taproot, our Manchester-based group practice brings together clinicians trained in a range of therapeutic models. Across different professional backgrounds, we’ve learned these approaches not just in theory, but through real therapeutic relationships with real people.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is an approach that many of our therapists encountered during advanced clinical training — and it consistently stood out. It closely aligns with our shared values of trauma-informed working, collaboration, and deep respect for people’s lived experiences.
What makes CAT different is its stance. Rather than locating the “problem” within the person, CAT gently asks:
What happened to you?
How did you survive?
And how might those ways of coping now be getting in the way of the life you want to live?
This perspective shapes how we understand distress and how we work alongside clients in therapy.
A Trauma-Informed Therapy That Honours Survival, Not Blame
Cognitive Analytic Therapy is grounded in the understanding that many patterns people struggle with today once played an important role in helping them cope or stay safe.
These patterns often develop in response to early relationships and experiences — particularly where care, safety, or emotional attunement were inconsistent, critical, overwhelming, or absent. From a trauma-informed perspective, these responses are not signs of weakness, but of adaptation.
Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?”
CAT asks, “How did this make sense at the time?”
For many people, this shift alone feels relieving and validating. It recognises that distress is not a personal failure, but a meaningful response to experience.
As a Manchester based trauma practice, we’re also drawn to how collaborative and relational therapy CAT is. Therapy is not something done to you — it’s something created with you. The therapeutic relationship itself becomes a safe place where patterns can be noticed, understood, and gently revised, at a pace that feels manageable.
CAT acknowledges the humanity on both sides of the room. It allows space for curiosity, honesty, and repair, and supports realistic, compassionate change — moving toward something “good enough,” rather than an idealised or impossible version of healing.
What Difficulties Can Cognitive Analytic Therapy Help With?
CAT can support a wide range of mental health and emotional difficulties, but at its heart, it is a relational therapy.
It helps us explore:
- Our relationships with others (partners, family, friends, colleagues)
- Our relationship with ourselves (inner dialogue, shame, self-criticism, perfectionism)
- Our relationship with wider systems (work, education, culture, religion, society)
Rather than focusing on a single symptom, CAT takes a whole-person approach.
In our Manchester practice, CAT is often particularly helpful for people who:
- Feel stuck in repeating relationship patterns
- Struggle with shame, harsh self-criticism, or perfectionism
- Find themselves people-pleasing, masking, or putting others first at their own expense
- Pull away, shut down, or build emotional walls when relationships feel too close
- Have experienced relational trauma or difficult early caregiving experiences
For many, these patterns developed in environments where safety depended on adapting — staying quiet, staying useful, staying pleasing, or staying guarded. CAT helps make sense of how these patterns formed, and why they’re still showing up today.
What Does Change Look Like in Cognitive Analytic Therapy?
One of the most meaningful aspects of CAT is that change is often subtle, gradual, and deeply compassionate.
CAT usually unfolds across three overlapping stages:
1. Reformulation
This is where we gently revisit the story you’ve learned to tell about yourself — how your difficulties began, what they mean about you, and what kind of person you believe yourself to be.
Many people arrive with a narrative shaped by self-blame. A powerful shift happens when that story is viewed through a more compassionate lens:
“Given what I went through, it makes sense that I learned to cope this way.”
2. Recognition
Over time, clients begin to notice their patterns as they happen — not just in hindsight. CAT calls this developing an observing eye: the ability to step back and recognise what’s going on in the moment.
3. Revision
This awareness opens the door to change. Together, we explore small, realistic “exits” from old patterns — gentle experiments that build confidence and choice over time.
Change in CAT isn’t about dramatic breakthroughs. It’s about creating flexibility where things once felt fixed.
Making CAT Understandable and Accessible
Cognitive Analytic Therapy can sound complex on paper, but in the therapy room it should feel clear, human, and grounded.
Our therapists in Manchester are mindful of using everyday language, metaphors, and visual tools. One of these is a CAT map — a simple, collaborative diagram that helps make sense of your patterns and how they connect. This map is co-created, personalised, and based on your own words.
If something doesn’t make sense, that matters. CAT is a collaborative process, and your feedback is essential. Therapy should never feel like you’re expected to “keep up” or understand jargon.
Working With the Therapeutic Relationship
In CAT, we expect that patterns from outside relationships will show up in therapy too — and that’s not a problem. It’s part of the work.
If criticism feels threatening, you might worry about disappointing your therapist. If closeness feels unsafe, you might pull back when things feel emotional. These moments are noticed together, without judgment, and explored safely.
When misunderstandings or ruptures occur, they’re approached as opportunities for understanding and repair — experiences that can later translate into relationships outside therapy.
Is CAT Right for You?
Cognitive Analytic Therapy can be particularly helpful for people experiencing long-standing relational difficulties or complex trauma. If someone is experiencing very acute PTSD symptoms, such as frequent flashbacks or trauma-specific nightmares, approaches like EMDR may be more appropriate initially.
Sometimes CAT works best on its own; sometimes it works alongside other therapies. What matters most is finding the right fit for you.
Starting CAT Therapy in Manchester
Feeling unsure or anxious before starting therapy is completely normal. Those first steps take courage.
We encourage people to use initial consultations as a way of seeing whether the therapist — and the approach — feels right. You’re allowed to take your time. You’re allowed to ask questions. You’re allowed to decide what feels safest for you.
At Taproot Psychology we have several Manchester-based therapists who offer Cognitive Analytic Therapy, all working from a trauma-informed and relational perspective.
If you’d like to learn more about CAT therapy in Manchester, or explore whether it might be right for you, you’re welcome to get in touch via our Contact Us page.
Wherever you decide to go next, we hope you choose a path — and a therapist — that honours your pace, your story, and your resilience.
