Integrating cognitive behavioral-based therapy with an intersubjective approach: Addressing metacognitive deficits among people with Schizophrenia

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been established as a beneficial treatment for people with schizophrenia. Accordingly, various psychosocial interventions based on a CBT model have been developed. An additional established finding is that persons with schizophrenia exhibit metacognitive deficits and limitations in their abilities to construct complex accounts of themselves and others and to use that knowledge to respond to psychological problems. Addressing these limitations, while providing CBT, seems to require the integration of an intersubjective approach with CBT-based protocols. This paper presents three examples of an integrative approach to psychotherapy for people with schizophrenia that integrates CBT-based psychosocial treatments with an intersubjective approach. The proposed model of integration needs to be examined in order to establish its possible contribution to the clinical work with persons with schizophrenia.