Metacognitive therapy: a resource for irrational thoughts

Metacognitive therapy is especially effective in treating anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.. Its advantage is to place the focus on processes of rumination, pathological or irrational worry, and those dysfunctional beliefs that feed discomfort.

It should be noted that we are facing a recently created therapeutic model. It was Adrian Wells, professor of clinical and experimental psychopathology at the University of Manchester, who developed it. And after training with Aaron Beck as a cognitive therapist, he ended up shaping a new approach focused exclusively on metacognitions.

Let us remember, metacognition refers to the supervision and regulation that we do of our own mental processes. Being skilled in this strategy would enable us to understand our mental universe (and that of others) much better. Because, as Dr. Wells himself explains, A good part of the psychopathological processes originate from this set of dysfunctional mental processes..

According to several studies, metacognitive therapy would work much better than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety, and better than EMDR for trauma.

Metacognitive therapy: what does it consist of?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been a cornerstone within psychology for years. His therapeutic model has been one of the most effective and valued. However, for some time now it has been noted that it is no longer as effective as before in the treatment of depression, for example. In 2015, a study published in the Psychological Bulletin This aspect was already pointed out.

What is the cause? Some experts warn that as a therapy becomes more and more popular, less skilled therapists appear. Howeverthere is another aspect that the psychotherapist already pointed out in his day Allen Wheelis: people are changing. Perhaps, we need new techniques for new needs.

Adrian Wells’s metacognitive therapy starts from a premise. Many psychological disorders are fueled by useless coping strategies. We are, perhaps more than ever, a society that worries badly and excessively, that constantly ruminates and that establishes a clearly negative internal dialogue. It is necessary to address these types of mental processes.

Metacognitive beliefs: this is how you think, this is how you feel

Many of us have adopted a very common habit: thinking that we need to worry to feel better. Almost without realizing it, we fall into labyrinths of infinite rumination where we end up lost, exhausted and helpless. Worrying a lot doesn’t solve anything; it makes us unhappy.

According to metacognitive therapy, our beliefs are the fuel that fuels anxiety, depression and stress. Some are explicit (they can be verbalized and the person is usually aware of them) and others are implicit, that is, they are unconscious processes that dominate our attention, our reactions and our ways of interpreting reality.

Suffering and cognitive attention syndrome

Adrien Wells suggests that The discomfort that ends up shaping many mental disorders is nourished by the cognitive attention syndrome. It is a mental filter that clouds our ability to use a healthy, flexible and useful cognitive approach. The processes that make up this type of syndrome are the following:

Rumination and excessive and useless worry. Using an attentional bias that only attends to the negative or problematic (whether real or not) is a clear trigger of suffering. Applying negative regulation or coping strategies. An example of this would be to focus only on threats and possible dangers and not on solutions.

Metacognitive therapy assumes that the mind can “heal” itself.

There is a metaphor regarding cognitive therapy that is as curious as it is interesting. It stands out that, just as the body is capable of promoting repair and healing processes (such as when we get a wound), the mind is also capable of “healing” itself.

It achieves this through the following mechanisms:

The patient is taught to become aware of those mental processes that reinforce the symptomatology of the clinical picture. It is revealed to them how their own coping strategies have done so far is to reinforce the discomfort. Likewise, the person is helped to identify their pathological metacognitive beliefs and challenge them. Another point that is working is the futility of excessive worry and rumination. They are enabled in the technique of flexible attention, with which they stop giving relevance to negative thoughts, to replace them with healthier reasoning. Development of strategies such as mindfulness.

Therapeutic effectiveness and success rate

Metacognitive therapy may seem interesting to us. However, the most important thing is to know if it is really effective. Well, research from the University of Copenhagen highlights that This methodology can be superior to other psychotherapies, such as cognitive behavioral.

Likewise, in addition to being effective and fast, Relapses are avoided in many cases. This undoubtedly makes it even more remarkable.

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