El Hamoumi, Sarah Theresa Stjernholk

Larsen, Neel Wismann

Sapunova, Valeriya

Schøning, Eva Elisabeth Bilancio

Sørensen, Emilie Bremholm

AbstractThis project examines the experiences of people with depression, who have had either cognitive or metacognitive therapy. We are interested in hearing about these experiences of therapy from the clients themselves and comparing these experiences with each other. The project is centered around our own gathering of data; three interviews with cognitive clients and three with metacognitive clients. The interviews have been conducted with a semi-structured interviewguide. Our approach to the interviews and to our subjects is inspired by Phenomenology, which we discuss further in the project.We have developed our own understanding of depression, based on the theories of Aaron Beck, Sigmund Freud and Martin Seligman. Following this, we have described and discussed the theories behind cognitive and metacognitive therapy. These theoretical discussions help us gain a better understanding of our interview subjects’ experiences of therapy for depression. Our analysis compares the common themes from our interviews without neglecting themes or experiences that are singular to just one subject. By comparing the experiences of cognitive therapy with those of metacognitive therapy, we conclude the following: Overall, all our subjects have had positive experiences of therapy. They experience the same techniques differently, which leads us to discuss whether cognitive therapy works for some people, while metacognitive therapy works for others. While we are aware that our research sample is small, we see a difference in how the men and women we interview experience therapy. This leads us to discuss how gender influences peoples’ experiences of depression. We also discuss our subjects experiences of difficulty defining when they are “normal” and when they are mentally ill.  This leads us to conclude that not one theory alone can describe depression, just as not one type of therapy alone will treat all people with depression.<br/

Metacognitive and cognitive treatment of depression - how are they experienced?

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Roskilde Universitet