Dr Stella Compton Dickinson
'Dom’ is a highly sensitive, high flying performing artist from another country. He came to therapy because his thoughts and his body were in permanent disagreement, resulting in profound fear of bodily humiliation and exposure when on stage.
Dom’s CAT therapy involved mapping out the connections between what he was thinking and how he gradually learned a new way to listen to his body and to recognise the signals that it was trying to communicate to his brain.
We applied a trauma-based poly vagal approach to the CAT self -states model in which over activation, meaning a dorsal vagal response with dissociation, interrupted Dom’s normal ventral vagal emotionally regulated ability to function.
In this workshop I will share Dom’s diagram (with thanks for his informed consent) The workshop outcome will be that of understanding and experiencing how to map out dysregulated trauma triggered states. We will consider how to track the associated procedures that involved overwhelming negative feelings with associated thoughts which constitute a common yet complex snag.
Our personal journeys towards developing a wiser mind as the ‘more experienced other’ may involve mapping out our internal dialogues, or alternatively in exploring that of a client.
CAT can occur in reciprocal relating in so many ways for example whilst walking, talking and connecting or in beating a drum to communicate. This process at best involves being at the same vibrational level as the other people in the room, in effect constituting a harmonious quarte, ensemble or an orchestra. Alternatively we may recognize feeling out of tune, peripheral, stigmatized or othered by which differences are not respected. We may explore these dynamics together with a non judgmental, inclusive and mutually supportive attitude.
Stella’s award winning doctoral research focused on exploring and researching the effectiveness of the non verbal active ingredients of CAT. Initially in jointly -created musical improvisation in CAMT, then in visual signs and in listening to one’s body’s gut responses and survival instincts, as well as in identifying both cognitive and affective empathy and what we can learn from other mammals in how they connect and communicate without words. Stella is an accredited cognitive analytic supervisor and psychotherapist, as well as a healthcare researcher, music therapist and professional musician. She has published two books and numerous chapters and papers.
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2025 Conference Workshops