University College London Computational Psychotherapy Lab

Computational
Psychotherapy Lab

How does psychopathology emerge, persist, and hopefully ameliorate? These are the central questions of the Computational Psychotherapy Lab, which is aimed at developing formal models of the mechanisms underlying mental health problems and their treatment.

The Lab

Lab Head
Michael Moutoussis
Michael Moutoussis
Principal Investigator
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Senior Members
Giles Story
Giles Story
Senior Member
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Peter Fonagy
Peter Fonagy
Senior Member
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Students
Orestis Zavlis
Orestis Zavlis
PhD Researcher · Lab Coordinator
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Tyler Kwan
Tyler Kwan
MSc Student
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Representative Publications

2015 — 2026
2026
From personality to relational pathology
The Lancet Psychiatry
Zavlis, O., & Moutoussis, M.
View paper →
2025
A formal theory of mood instability
Clinical Psychological Science
Zavlis, O., Bentall, R. P., Fonagy, P., & Rigoli, F.
View paper →
A generative model of personality disorder as a relational disorder
Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science
Zavlis, O., Moutoussis, M., Fonagy, P., & Story, G.
View paper →
A systematic review of computational modeling of interpersonal dynamics in psychopathology
Nature Mental Health
Zavlis, O., Story, G., Friedrich, C., Fonagy, P., & Moutoussis, M.
View paper →
2024
A social inference model of idealization and devaluation
Psychological Review
Story, G. W., Smith, R., Moutoussis, M., Berwian, I. M., Nolte, T., Bilek, E., … & Dolan, R. J.
View paper →
A computational signature of self-other mergence in Borderline Personality Disorder
Translational Psychiatry
Story, G. W., Ereira, S., Valle, S., Chamberlain, S. R., Grant, J. E., & Dolan, R. J.
View paper →
2021
Simulating the computational mechanisms of cognitive and behavioral psychotherapeutic interventions: Insights from active inference
Scientific Reports
Smith, R., Moutoussis, M., & Bilek, E.
View paper →
A computational neuroscience perspective on the change process in psychotherapy
Neuroscience of Enduring Change
Smith, R., Lane, R. D., Nadel, L., & Moutoussis, M.
View chapter →
2018
Computation in psychotherapy, or how computational psychiatry can aid learning-based psychological therapies
Computational Psychiatry
Moutoussis, M., Shahar, N., Hauser, T. U., & Dolan, R. J.
View paper →
2015
The computational psychiatry of reward: broken brains or misguided minds?
Frontiers in Psychology
Moutoussis, M., Story, G. W., & Dolan, R. J.
View paper →

Get in touch

If you're interested in our research and you'd like to join the lab — whether as a student, a researcher, or a clinical / lived experience advisor — please reach out to the lab head and the lab coordinator.

Lab Head
Michael Moutoussis
m.moutoussis@ucl.ac.uk →
Lab Coordinator
Orestis Zavlis
orestis.zavlis.23@ucl.ac.uk →