Anthony Ryle

Improving mental health services

Ryle believed that many people with mental health problems were poorly served, often by approaches that did not fully address their lives as a whole, the impact of their early interpersonal relationships, and the therapist’s role in producing positive change. “Basically, the model was an attempt to synthesise and transform the valid, effective elements of a range of other models,” says Ian Kerr, a consultant psychotherapist, friend, and former colleague. “Tony did this brilliantly. He put them together in a time limited, user friendly package that could be employed effectively in the NHS for ordinary people. It was an extraordinary, creative, scientific, and humanitarian achievement—the culmination of a lifetime’s clinical and intellectual work.”

Cognitive analytic therapy is used to treat people with …