ND Adapted Cognitive Analytical Therapy (CAT) informed Tools
Cognitive Analytic Therapy reflection tools — designed specifically for neurodivergent minds.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) offers a structured way to map patterns of yourself and patterns you experience when with other people. They can be helpful in coming to understand yourself, where the patterns came from and begin to see yourself differently. They can be used with a therapist or to support client reflection. Typically, in CAT, the “Psychotherapy File” is used during the assessment and formulation stage. The Psychotherapy file has been adapted to neurodivergent minds and experiences. It can be shared with your therapist.
They are not a diagnostic instruments. They are a starting point for conversation — a way for us to begin locating our own experience, and for clinicians to build a richer, more accurate formulation. I find them useful when working on generating a shared understanding with clients using a Reformulation (visual CAT map) to illustrate how difficulties and experiences may be maintained.
ND informed and adapted Psychotherapy File (Questionnaire)
This tool is tailored to the specific relational patterns, emotional states, and formulation priorities of neurodivergent minds. Changes and adaptations were made to clinical content, language, and emphasis in preparation for or alongside therapy to produce understanding via a Visual Sequential Diagrammatic Reformulation. The tool is useful for self-exploration before and alongside therapy'. Based on Ryle et al. You can download the pdf below.
Reflection Tools for neurodivergent minds
Rejection sensitivity · Over-promising · Shame cycles · Burnout · Late diagnosis grief
Developed for adults with ADHD, Autism, or both attending therapy — or preparing to. The client file maps CAT pattern cards across 4 domains, from early learnt relationship patterns (Traps), Dilemmas, Snags and recurrent states with exit strategies. Central themes include:
Rejection sensitivity · Over-promising · Shame · Burnout · Late diagnosis grief, Masking · the Double empathy problem · Monotropism · Identity after late diagnosis
Learning Disability adapted interactive Psychotherapy file for mobile phone
Accessible design · Plain language · Compliance patterns · Voice and choice · Dignity-centred framing
Developed for adults with mild-to-moderate learning disabilities engaging in adapted talking therapy. The client file uses large text, emoji-supported navigation, plain language throughout, and a simplified three-option rating system. Pattern cards address the specific relational and emotional landscape of LD experience: being controlled or directed, the compliance trap, internalised ableism, trust after exploitation or neglect, and the dilemma between wanting independence and fearing it.
What is Cognitive Analytic Therapy?
Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) was developed by Anthony Ryle in the 1990s as an integrative, time-limited psychotherapy that draws on both cognitive and psychoanalytic traditions. It centres on the idea that our emotional and relational difficulties arise from procedural patterns — learned ways of thinking, feeling, and relating that developed in response to our early experiences.
CAT uses collaborative tools — including the Sequential Diagrammatic Reformulation (SDR) — to map these patterns, name them clearly, and create a shared language for change. It is relational, explicitly non-pathologising, and oriented toward understanding rather than symptom management.
These tools adapt CAT's core concepts for neurodivergent presentations, holding both neurological difference and the genuine emotional impact of living in environments that were not built for neurodivergent brains.
Reciprocal Roles
The relational patterns we learned — what one person does, and what tends to happen in response. Mapped as pairs: e.g. disappointing ↔ disappointed.
Traps
Self-reinforcing cycles where the coping strategy maintains the very difficulty it was meant to solve — e.g. over-promising to avoid rejection, which leads to more rejection.
Dilemmas
Either/or binds where both options feel unworkable — e.g. either disclose and risk judgment, or stay hidden and remain unsupported.
Snags
Patterns that derail progress just as change becomes possible — often rooted in a belief that good things are not available to this person.
Reformulation Diagram
CAT uses a visual map to show how difficulties are maintained to help create exit strategies.
Explore more resources
