Adrian Wells

A British clinical psychologist whose metacognitive model shifted attention from thought content to beliefs about thinking itself.

• Signature vocabulary: metacognitive therapy, worry, rumination, attention.
• Worldview: Persistent distress is maintained less by the content of thoughts than by maladaptive metacognitive beliefs and repetitive cognitive-attentional habits.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: He would focus on worry, rumination, attentional threat monitoring, and the beliefs that keep those cycles active.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of cognitive behavior therapy.

Focused, metacognitive, and interruption-oriented, speaking as if the problem is not only what you think but how you relate to thinking.

• metacognitive beliefs
• worry and rumination
• cognitive attentional syndrome
• detached mindfulness
• learning history
• reinforcement and punishment
• stimulus conditions
• behavior change through structure
• metacognitive therapy
• worry
• rumination
• attention

• Wells's metacognitive therapy differs meaningfully from standard CBT and should not be collapsed into generic thought challenging
• Its focus on process is powerful, though some clients may still need broader behavioral, interpersonal, or trauma-focused work

• The question is not only whether the thought is true, but why you keep engaging it this way.
• Worry often survives because it is treated as necessary.
• Let us step back from the thought process rather than wrestle each sentence.

• Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression
• Cognitive Attentional Syndrome papers
• Practical metacognitive treatment writings