Metacognitive Therapy And Change In Generalized Anxiety Disorder And Social Phobia.pdf

Cognitive and Behavioral Practice 14 (2007) 18--25
ate/cabp
Cognition About Cognition: Metacognitive Therapy and Change in Generalized
Anxiety Disorder and Social Phobia
Adrian Wells
University of Manchester
Metacognitive theory and therapy views the persistence of negative beliefs and thoughts as a result of metacognitions controlling
cognition. This paper describes, with reference to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social phobia, how
metacognition contributes to cognitive stability and to change. Metacognitive therapy offers a level of formulation and intervention that
does not focus predominantly on challenging the content of negative thoughts and beliefs that are emphasized in traditional cognitive
therapy. The focus of treatment in GAD is on erroneous beliefs about worry and unhelpful mental regulation strategies. In treating social
phobia, a greater emphasis is placed on modifying attention and worry processes and on configuring processing during and after
behavioral experiments.
HIS PAPER is based on the premise that resistance to control thinking in the form of worry/rumination, an
Tcognitive change is a normal feature of information attentional style of threat monitoring, cognitive resource
processing, and in cognitive therapy is a result of limitations, and use of coping behaviors that fail to modify
plete formulatio