Just as there are many concepts in psychology that are commonly used and that, to a greater or lesser extent, we all know, there are also others that are totally unknown to us, in fact, when you go to therapy with a good psychologist that works properly, it is normal that you talk about terms that we have never heard of before. This can happen with metacognitive therapy.
Just as the therapist gives us a treatment plan and explains the intervention he is planning, we will explain what this type of treatment consists of and how it can help us manage our discomfort.
“Nothing in life is as important as how we think when we think about it. “- Daniel Kahneman-
Let’s continue with the example of therapy. When researching a cognitive behavioral psychologist working according to scientifically proven techniques, the method usually follows an order: first a review and then a return of the results with a personalized intervention plan.
When the therapist explains what’s happening to us, he talks about how our emotions work and why we feel that way.
Here it is very important to note that much of the discomfort generated by certain situations arises from the way we interpret them, I explain better: in the face of the same situation, one can feel in different ways depending on the thoughts he has. In fact, we often feel bad because our thoughts don’t adapt to reality.
“Once we believe in something, this belief usually accompanies us for the rest of our lives, unless we test it. “Richard Gillet
For this reason, cognitive therapy focuses on learning to identify, challenge and change these automatic thoughts and associated irrational beliefs, by doing this, it becomes possible to decrease the intensity of negative emotions, it is becoming more common for these cognitions to be considering, it is also necessary to work on the metacognitive aspects.
In this sense, metacognition would be the set of factors for interpreting, monitoring and controlling cognition, that is, it refers to our thoughts on how and what we think, that is, metacognition is part of our attempts to process and make sense of our thoughts, beliefs and other cognitive processes.
Well, emotional discomfort can be generated and accompanied by negative metacognitive beliefs. Can these be the type? Having bad thoughts means I’m bad ?,?Worrying will help me be prepared ?,? I have no control over my thoughts?,?If I think of something wrong, will I do bad things?.
? If there is a solution, why worry? If there is no solution, why bother ??- Ramiro A. Calle-
These types of metacognitive beliefs maintain the cognitive processes they generate, maintain chronic emotional discomfort, such as rumia, anxieties, the act of focusing attention on negative stimuli (negative attention bias), concentration causes more than solutions, etc. In addition, ineffective Control and repression strategies that intensify negative emotions are often used.
Therefore, metacognitive therapy focuses on eliminating dysfunctional treatment models, i. e. changing the person’s uncompromising thinking, who makes them “stagnant” in prolonged and negative treatment of themselves, definitely looking to change the way we respond to our thoughts.
This allows us to work more deeply than with traditional cognitive therapy, because we change not only the content of our thoughts, but also the way we think about ourselves. In fact, studies indicate that metacognitive therapy is effective for the treatment of generalized anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder.