Are We Approaching Mental Health Wrong? The Anti-Talk Therapy Changing How Therapists Treat Anxiety, Depression, OCD, And More, with Psychologist Sunniva Itland

May 21, 2025

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What if we're approaching mental health all wrong? A revolutionary new therapy is debunking popular therapy narratives and changing how we treat anxiety and overthinking.

We’re continuing our Mental Health Awareness Month series with this introduction to Metacognitive Therapy (MCT), a groundbreaking new approach to treating anxiety, overthinking, OCD, depression, panic attacks, and more, without the usual coping strategies and trauma processing.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, Metacognitive Therapy helps people break free from the cycle of worry, rumination, and distress by targeting the way we think about our thoughts — not the thoughts themselves.

This is an especially exciting topic for me, as I’ve been working with the team at metacognitivetherapy.com as the Head Of Content for the past year, creating mental health resources including a website, social media channels, an app and a new podcast that’s still to come. MCT might just revolutionize how we treat mental health disorders.

I’m joined by Clinical Psychologist Sunniva Itland, founder of one of Norway's largest private psychology clinics and co-founder of metacognitivetherapy.com, to unpack this transformative therapy that's changing lives worldwide.

This is for anyone who hasn’t found a therapy or modality that’s really working to improve their mental health. Welcome to anti-therapy therapy.

Tune in to hear about:

How MCT differs from CBT, talk therapy, and other traditional approaches to anxiety disorders, OCD and depression
Sunniva's personal journey overcoming social anxiety using metacognitive therapy approaches
Why trauma-focused and emotion-processing therapies may be keeping you stuck
Why people develop mental health conditions VS others
How common mental habits like overthinking, symptom monitoring, and reassurance-seeking fuel anxiety
Recognizing unhelpful metabeliefs like “worrying keeps me safe” or “I can't control my thoughts
Why positive affirmations, reframing, mindfulness, and traditional coping strategies often backfire
Research-backed techniques for immediately reducing anxiety, like worry postponement and detached mindfulness

Metacognitive Therapy resources:

metacognitivetherapy.com

https://www.instagram.com/metacognitive_therapy/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/metacognitive-therapy/

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