Peter Gasper & Associates
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    • Peter Gasper
    • Laura Smith
    • Cathryn Prendergast
  • THERAPY APPROACHES
    • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
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    • Metacognitive Therapy
    • Schema Therapy
    • Interpersonal Therapy
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  • THERAPY WORKSHEETS
    • Identiying problems & setting goals
    • Dealing with negative thoughts
    • Worry management
    • Stress management
    • Core beliefs & schemas
    • Changing unhelpful behaviour
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Metacognitive therapy

Metacognition refers to a person's ability to to be aware of & control their own thoughts.  "Meta" is Greek for "after" & cognition refers to thoughts.   In many ways it refers to our ability to be aware of & think about our thoughts as well as what we believe to be true about our thoughts.

Metacognitive therapy is based on the idea that emotional & behavioural problems such as depression & anxiety are caused by the Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (CAS) which consists of:
  • Worry
  • Rumination
  • Fixation of attention on threat &
  • Unhelpful coping behaviours. 

Metacognitive beliefs or beliefs that we have about our thoughts are said to control the CAS.  Examples of negative or dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs include:
  • "Worrying helps me to cope"
  • "If I worry about something then it won't happen"
  • "If I think about doing something then it must mean I want to do it or it's going to happen"
  • "I need to be able to control my thoughts at all times"

Metacognitive therapy aims to identify & modify unhelpful metacognitive beliefs as well as retrain attention away from threat.  In doing so this helps to alleviate many of the symptoms of psychological problems.

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