Many cognitive behavioral therapists are familiar with helping clients “step back” from their thoughts, but distancing and decentering are often treated as interchangeable ideas in CBT, or are reduced to simple cognitive restructuring techniques. In reality, they describe related but distinct metacognitive processes that may play an important role across mood and anxiety disorders.

Understanding the differences between them can inform psychoeducation, guide intervention choices, and help therapists avoid common misunderstandings.

This article explores:

• The difference between psychological distancing and decentering.

• How the role these metacognitive processes play in CBT.

• Practical CBT techniques therapists can use to help clients step back from their thoughts.

Why do distancing and decentering matter in CBT?

Negative automatic thoughts are often experienced as facts or truths about a situation, rather than as potentially biased interpretations. These interpretations can contribute to distressing emotions and unhelpful behaviors across psychological disorders.

Distancing and decentering help clients relate differently to their cognitions by developing metacognitive awareness, reducing identification with thought content, and decreasing emotional reactivity. While distancing and decentering overlap, the differences between them are important. Therapists who understand these distinctions are often better placed to explain how CBT works and select appropriate interventions.

Psychological distancing and decentering are not the same thing

Psychological distancing is described as an active metacognitive process that involves viewing cognitions as “constructions of ‘reality’ rather than reality itself” (Alford & Beck, 1997, p.142). It means recognizing that thoughts are subjective interpretations or hypotheses rather than objective facts. One of Beck’s distinctions in cognitive therapy captures this clearly: distancing involves recognizing the difference between “I believe” (an opinion that is subject to validation) and “I know” (an ‘irrefutable’ fact)”.

Decentering, by contrast, refers to stepping outside one’s immediate experience and examining appraisals from alternative perspectives. It encourages individuals to treat thoughts as ideas that can be explored and tested.

Importantly, this suggests that distancing is a prerequisite for decentering. For example, Beck (1999) describes how individuals first need to acknowledge that their perspective may be biased before they can step back and evaluate it from other viewpoints.

Because distancing and decentering are metacognitive skills rather than intellectual insights, many clients find it helpful to use structured exercises and worksheets to build these abilities. Psychology Tools provides handouts and guided interventions designed to help clients observe their thoughts, experiment with alternative perspectives, and apply these skills between sessions.

Psychological distancing and decentering are helpful in several ways

There are believed to be at least three mechanisms underlying distancing and decentering:

1. Metacognitive awareness. Individuals become more aware of their internal experiences and the content of their consciousness, including thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. For example, the cognition “I am stupid” may shift toward “I am having the thought that I am stupid.”

2. Disidentification from thoughts and feelings. Clients begin to experience thoughts and feelings as separate from the self. This might be reflected in their movement from immersed, first-person statements (“I’m sad”) toward more observational language (“I’m feeling sadness right now”).

3. Reduced emotional reactivity. Thoughts have less impact on clients’ emotional, attentional, and motivational processes. Because there is more separation from the experience, triggers become less potent (e.g., seeing one’s reflection does not always lead to self-critical thoughts).

These mechanisms suggest that therapeutic change may occur even when the content of thoughts remains relatively unchanged. In other words, clients can experience improvements not because they have less distressing cognitions, but because their relationship to those cognitions changes.

Metaphors can help clients grasp psychological distancing and decentring

One of our personal favorites is the art gallery metaphor:

Psychological distancing is like stepping back from a painting and recognizing it is one interpretation of reality among many. Decentering is like moving around the gallery and viewing the same painting from different angles and lighting conditions, which can lead to new judgments of it.

This metaphor is useful because it captures two separate therapeutic processes. First, it demonstrates that thoughts are representations rather than facts. Second, clients recognize that multiple perspectives on the same experience are possible. Therapists can sometimes focus too much on the second step while underestimating the importance of the first.

Many tools can help clients gain psychological distance and decenter

Depending on the stage of treatment and clients’ preferences, therapists can use a wide range of interventions to support distancing and decentering. Rather than asking clients to try them all at once, therapists should encourage them to practice a few chosen techniques repeatedly over time. Some helpful strategies include:

1. Recording thoughts. Writing thoughts down, drawing them, or tallying recurrent cognition can help clients observe them rather than remain immersed in them.

2. Rating thoughts. Clients can rate belief, accuracy, or helpfulness using scales, stars, or other markers.

3. Labelling thoughts. Naming cognitive distortions (“That’s an all-or-nothing thought”) can promote metacognitive awareness.

4. Perspective-taking. Questions about how a client might view a thought in ten years’ time or from a neutral bystander’s perspective can support decentering.

5. Modifying language. Phrases such as “I’m having the thought that…” can reinforce psychological distance.

6. Work with “parts”. Clients may benefit from imagining distressing thoughts come from a part of themselves, such as their “inner critic” or “worried side.”

Psychological distancing is harder during emotional arousal

Hollon and Beck (1979) note that distancing and decentering can be particularly difficult during periods of intense emotional activation. This has important implications for therapy. Rather than misinterpreting difficulties with distancing and decentering as a lack of insight or ‘resistance’, it may be that the client is simply too emotionally activated to access their metacognitive capacity. In this context, repeated practice and gradual generalization are often key.

Conclusion: why psychological distancing matters in CBT

Distancing and decentering are more than cognitive therapy buzzwords. They are distinct but overlapping concepts that can help clients change how they relate to their thoughts, emotions, and other internal experiences. Rather than focusing exclusively on changing thought content, distancing and decentering invite therapists to help their clients develop a different relationship with cognition itself. For some clients, that shift can be a meaningful therapeutic outcome in its own right.

Clinical resources for psychological distancing and decentering

If you provide CBT or work with clients who experience distressing thoughts, structured tools can help turn distancing and decentering into practical skills and interventions.

Psychology Tools offers therapists a variety of resources and client handouts that support cognitive distancing, decentering, and metacognitive awareness. Explore our CBT resources to enhance your clinical work and help clients develop a more flexible relationship with their thoughts.

Further reading

• Alford, B. A., & Beck, A. T. (1997). The integrative power of cognitive therapy. Guilford Press.

• Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. Meridian.

• Beck, A. T. (1999). Prisoners of hate: The cognitive basis of anger, hostility, and violence. Perennial.

• Bernstein, A., Hadash, Y., Lichtash, Y., Tanay, G., Shepherd, K., & Fresco, D. M. (2015). Decentering and related constructs: A critical review and metacognitive processes model. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 599–617.

• Hollon, S. D., & Beck, A. T. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. In P. C. Kendall & S. D. Barlow (Eds.), Cognitive-behavioral intervention: Theory, research, and procedures (pp. 153–203). Academic Press.

• Ingram, R. E., & Hollon, S. D. (1986). Cognitive therapy for depression from an information processing perspective. In R. E. Ingram (Ed.), Information processing approaches to clinical psychology (pp. 259–281). Academic Press.

• Wills, F. (2022). Beck’s cognitive therapy: Distinctive features (2nd ed.). Routledge.