Table 4.

Summary of theme and subthemes emerging form qualitative interview

Theme	Subtheme	Illustrative quotes
Insight into experiences	Understanding Psychosis	‘It helped me understand like the psychosis and that a bit more, understand my mind … because I didn't have a clue what was going on … Or why’ (Participant 3)
	Sense making	‘I used to be like afraid of homelessness and prostitution and that […] so […] we said that is all that combined which is why I get the voices’ (Participant 1) ‘it was kind of a balance between what's happening in the past week or now and if that's relevant with the past’ (Participant 5)
Building a therapeutic relationship	Being heard without judgement	‘I could just speak my mind’ (Participant 3) ‘It made sense, it was good to have someone not family, not friends, that was neutral, impartial, didn't judge’ (Participant 5) ‘it was good just to be able to talk to someone and, and let my thoughts loose a bit’ (Participant 2)
	The building of trust	‘initially it was tough to let my guard down, but then I found it was useful to get insight into myself’ (Participant 5)
	The possibility of different perspectives	‘a different perspective of how to deal with past problems’(Participant 5)
The usefulness of CAT tools	Validating tangible objects	‘it was nice to have the summary in paper rather than just being told it’ (Participant 2) ‘Yeah, then other times I had, I'd read through it just so I'd know how much progress I'd made since then’ (Participant 3) ‘It helped me coz it was like when I come home and I sat down I'd read through it and then all of a sudden it would just click, sometimes I'd be able to do it dead easy, like what was in my mind’ (Participant 3)
	Evidence of being listened to	‘not closure but a marked state of your progress that someone else has recognized … I've done a bit better’ (Participant 5)
Making positive changes	Empowered to talk	‘I think I'd probably be more inclined to talk to others like, a bit more empowered to talk to them about it maybe’ (Participant 5)
	A better relationship with self and others	‘Yeah, erm, I mean before I started I was, I was alone, erm, whereas I'm more, more confident socially, maintain social circles a lot better’ (Participant 2)
	Control and confidence	‘I wanted to voices to stop completely […] but I don't think that's possible […] talking about something […] and understanding aspects of why it is happening then I can start to feel better […] more in control […] and to get more confident […] and to address the problem’ (Participant 1)