Metacognitive Therapy To Manage Emotional Distress

Just as there are many concepts in psychology that are in common use and that, to a greater or lesser extent, we all know, there are others that are totally unknown to us. In fact, when we go to therapy with a good psychologist who works properly, it is normal for him to speak to us in terms that we have not heard before.

The same can happen to us with this metacognitive therapy. For this reason, just as when the therapist returns the treatment plan to us and explains the intervention proposed, here we will explain what this type of treatment consists of and how it helps us to manage our discomfort.

What is metacognition?

Let’s continue with the example of going to therapy. When we go to a cognitive-behavioral psychologist, who works using scientifically supported techniques, the method usually follows an order: first an evaluation and then a return of results with a personalized intervention plan. When the therapist explains to us what is happening to us, he talks to us about how our emotions work and why we feel what we feel.

Here it  is important to bear in mind that a good part of the discomfort that some situations generate comes from our  way of interpreting them. Let me explain: faced with the same situation, we can feel in different ways depending on the thoughts we nurture. In fact, many times we feel bad because our thoughts do not match reality.

For this reason, within the framework of cognitive therapy we focus on learning to identify, question and change these automatic thoughts and the associated irrational beliefs. By achieving this, it is possible for us to reduce the intensity of negative emotions. But it is becoming increasingly present that, in addition to taking these cognitions into account, it is also necessary to work on the metacognitive aspects.

In this sense, metacognition would be the set of factors for interpretation, monitoring and control of cognition. In other words: it refers to our thoughts about how and what we think. That is, metacognition is everything that is part of our attempts to manage and give meaning to our thoughts, beliefs, and other cognitive processes.

What is metacognitive therapy?

Thus, emotional distress can be generated and accompanied by negative metacognitive beliefs. These can be of the type “having bad thoughts means that I am bad”, “worrying will help me to be prepared”, “if I analyze this, I will get answers”, “if I understand the reason for this situation, I will feel better or I will be able to find solutions “,“ I have no control over my thoughts ”,“ if I think something bad, I will do bad things ”.

This type of metacognitive beliefs maintain cognitive processes that generate, maintain and chronify emotional distress, such as rumination, worries, focusing attention on negative stimuli (negative attentional bias), focusing on causes instead of solutions , etc. In addition, ineffective control and suppression strategies are often put in place that intensify negative emotions.

Therefore, metacognitive therapy focuses on removing dysfunctional processing modes. That is, in changing that inflexible way of thinking of the person that causes them to be “trapped” in a prolonged negative self-processing. Ultimately, it seeks to change how we respond to our thoughts.

This allows us to work more in depth than with traditional cognitive therapy, since we not only change the content of our thoughts, but the way we think about itself. In fact, studies in this regard show that metacognitive therapy is effective for the treatment of generalized anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder or major depressive disorder.