Episode 25: Managing Worry, Getting Rid of Overthinking
episodePreviously titled “Managing Worry, Getting Rid of Overthinking” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
ADHD, Autism, And Anxiety: Breaking Out of The Box
49 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the focus of this episode and who is the guest?
Welcome to your Neurodivergent Village, ADHD, Autism and Anxiety Breaking Out of the Box. We're glad you found us. Join Dr. Noreen Russell as she dives deep into understanding and navigating the complexities of ADHD, autism, and anxiety. For both parents and professionals. Our hope is that you feel validated, comforted, and inspired. So as we joined Dr. Russell Relax. Take a breath. And know that you're not alone.
Welcome listeners to this episode of ADHD Autism and Anxiety Breaking Out of the Box. I am so excited to talk to today's guest because I think I have finally met my match in terms of finding someone who is as excited about metacognition as I am. So let me introduce her to you, and then she and I are going to talk about metacognition. what is metacognition, how she uses it in her work, and what we can learn from what she does to help us with developing metacognition in kids with ADHD and autism. So Welcome, Shang Olsen. Shang Olsen is a Danish clinical psychologist, author, and chairwoman of the MCT Institute, Denmark. specializing in overthinking, anxiety and emotional regulation. You can see already that she and I are gonna have a lot to talk about.
Through her clinical work and research in metacognition, attachment and overthinking. She helps people step out of overthinking and develop a calmer, more grounded relationship with their thoughts. In this conversation, she'll share why we get stuck in our minds and simple surprising ways to feel less overwhelmed and more in control of our thoughts. Welcome, doctor Olson.
Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited.
I am thrilled you're here because I have never met someone who is as excited about metacognition as I am and I have been looking forward to this conversation. Since I found you. So Tell me a little bit about How you got interested in metacognition? You're a clinical psychologist, you're a therapist. When did metacognition kind of enter into your realm and and why do you think it's important?
So I like probably many therapists from Denmark back in the day started by practicing I started practicing C B T and I applied that on my clients. And from the beginning I did not find that what's the word? interesting or satisfying enough because I thought that my sessions were not like a dance that CBT is described as. You should have a dance with your client and suddenly you get to a solution and then they leave, everything's good. Uh that's not how it felt to me. So I found there was something missing. and I used to live in China back then and I came back to Denmark to Copenhagen and it was by accident, just by coincidence, uh, that I Got a job uh at a clinic uh where the founder was practicing MCT metacognitive therapy.
And to me that was new and I thought, well, it's probably just similar to ACT or C B T, so I'll just give it a go. And after having practiced that with some of my clients, so I was in a process where I learned and I had to apply it with my clients, and I found that this was completely different from everything else that I tried. My clients, and this is not an exaggeration, sometimes they would come back after one session and telling me, this was life-changing. This has changed everything about how I view my mental health and my anxiety is gone or my depression is gone. So that was very eye-opening for me. And I started applying it to my own thinking and my own overthinking. And I also noticed that, wow, this is really powerful.
I felt so much better when I applied these strategies and that's where my passion for all this got bigger. And then I started uh writing a blog about it in English. To tell this to people uh who live around the world to know about this wonderful therapy. And that got me curious about the research behind it. And the more I dwelt into that and read about it, the more convinced I became that this is really something unique. This is very something very, very powerful. And that's how I got into it and got curious about it.
Amazing, amazing. So Unpack this a little bit for us, those of us who are not clinicians.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the focus of this episode and who is the guest?
0:01–6:23
2
How did Shang Olson become interested in metacognitive therapy?
6:23–10:21
3
What makes metacognitive therapy different from traditional CBT?
10:21–14:42
4
How does the mosquito‑bite metaphor illustrate worry and rumination?
14:42–22:15
5
Why do parents get stuck in cycles of over‑worrying about their children’s futures?
22:15–28:39
6
What practical strategies does metacognitive therapy offer for postponing worry?
28:39–34:12
7
How can postponing worry improve problem‑solving and reduce anxiety?
34:12–40:46
8
Where can listeners learn more about metacognitive therapy and access resources?
40:46–49:31
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from ADHD, Autism, And Anxiety: Breaking Out of The Box
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Episode 34: Dr. Justin Barterian Tells Us If Your ADHD Assessment Was Done Right
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