Metacognitive Approaches to Psychotherapy

Prefix "meta" derives from Greek and translates as "about" or "above". "Cognition" is a mental process of acquiring knowledge and/or understanding through thinking and experiencing. So, "metacognition" roughly translates to "thinking about thinking".

Why and how thinking about thinking, so awareness, monitoring and flexibility of ones thinking processes, may be beneficial for mental health?

During this seminar, we will cover two such psychotherapeutic methods and studies and theories that laid their foundations. We will also learn about some diagnostic methods used in these approaches. Metacognitive trainings created by prof. Steffen Moritz and Clinical Neuropsychology Working Group focuses on cognitive biases and associated behavioural strategies. The seminar will include information on the science and practice of metacognitive training for patients with schizophrenia (MCT) and metacognitive training for depression (D-MCT). Metacognitive therapy (also MCT) developed by prof. Adrian Wells and associates comes with a metacognitive theory of psychopathology – in this approach, various psychological disorders are included in a single transdiagnostic model, but we will focus on generalized anxiety disorder and depressive disorders.

- Moritz, S., & Woodward, T. S. (2005). Jumping to conclusions in delusional and nondelusional schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44(2), 193-207.

- Moritz, S., & Woodward, T. S. (2006). A generalized bias against disconfirmatory evidence in schizophrenia. Psychiatry research, 142(2), 157-165.

- Moritz, S., Woodward, T. S., & Rodriguez-Raecke, R. (2006). Patients with schizophrenia do not produce more false memories than controls but are more confident in them. Psychological medicine, 36(05), 659-667.

- Leahy, R. L. (2017). Cognitive therapy techniques: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Publications. Chosen pages.

- Spasojević, J., & Alloy, L. B. (2001). Rumination as a common mechanism relating depressive risk factors to depression. Emotion, 1(1), 25.

- Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of personality, 62(4), 615-640.

- Wells, A. (1995). Meta-cognition and worry: A cognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 23(03), 301-320.

- Wells, A. (2009) Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression. New York-London: Guilford Press, pp. 15-16, 108-122.

- Wells, A. (2008). Metacognitive therapy: Cognition applied to regulating cognition. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 36(06), 651-658.

- Wells, A. (2005). Detached mindfulness in cognitive therapy: A metacognitive analysis and ten techniques. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 23(4), 337-355.

Additional reading - how clinical scientists "beef":

- Capobianco, L., & Wells, A. (2018). Letter to the editor: Metacognitive therapy or metacognitive training: What's in a name?. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 59, 161.

- Andreou, C., Balzan, R. P., Jelinek, L., & Moritz, S. (2018). Letter to the Editor: Metacognitive training and metacognitive therapy. A reply to Lora Capobianco and Adrian Wells.

- Moritz, S., Lysaker, P. H., Hofmann, S. G., & Hautzinger, M. (2018). Going meta on metacognitive interventions. Expert review of neurotherapeutics, 18(10), 739-741.

- Moritz, S., & Lysaker, P. H. (2018). Metacognition–what did James H. Flavell really say and the implications for the conceptualization and design of metacognitive interventions. Schizophrenia research.