mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

PsychAgent: An Experience-Driven Lifelong Learning Agent for Self-Evolving Psychological Counselor

arXiv 2604.00931 ↗First posted 1 Apr 2026cs.AIcited by 3

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Medical and scientific domain agents

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Existing methods for AI psychological counselors predominantly rely on supervised fine-tuning using static dialogue datasets. However, this contrasts with human experts, who continuously refine their proficiency through clinical practice and accumulated experience. To bridge this gap, we propose an Experience-Driven Lifelong Learning Agent (textttPsychAgent) for psychological counseling. First, we establish a Memory-Augmented Planning Engine tailored for longitudinal multi-session interactions, which ensures therapeutic continuity through persistent memory and strategic planning. Second, to support self-evolution, we design a Skill Evolution Engine that extracts new practice-grounded skills from historical counseling trajectories. Finally, we introduce a Reinforced Internalization Engine that integrates the evolved skills into the model via rejection fine-tuning, aiming to improve performance across diverse scenarios. Comparative analysis shows that our approach achieves higher scores than strong general LLMs (e.g., GPT-5.4, Gemini-3) and domain-specific baselines across all reported evaluation dimensions. These results suggest that lifelong learning can improve the consistency and overall quality of multi-session counseling responses.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Medical and scientific domain agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 33 of its 43 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Apr 2026.

Builds on

33 of 43 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025AutoCBT: An Autonomous Multi-agent Framework for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Psychological Counseling16 Jan

Other references · 32

  1. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 14,132
  2. 2020Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Taskscited by 9,297
  3. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,820
  4. 2016Overcoming catastrophic forgetting in neural networkscited by 4,787
  5. 2024GPT-4o System Cardcited by 4,588
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  7. 2024A Survey on LLM-as-a-Judgecited by 1,423
  8. 2018Experience Replay for Continual Learningcited by 1,095
  9. 2023A Comprehensive Survey of Continual Learning: Theory, Method and Applicationcited by 872
  10. 2025DeepSeek-V3.2: Pushing the Frontier of Open Large Language Modelscited by 815
  11. 2025Mem0: Building Production-Ready AI Agents with Scalable Long-Term Memorycited by 779
  12. 2023Scaling Relationship on Learning Mathematical Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 427
20 more
  1. 2023SoulChat: Improving LLMs' Empathy, Listening, and Comfort Abilities through Fine-tuning with Multi-turn Empathy Conversationscited by 110
  2. 2024CPsyCoun: A Report-based Multi-turn Dialogue Reconstruction and Evaluation Framework for Chinese Psychological Counselingcited by 89
  3. 2025Lifelong Learning of Large Language Model based Agents: A Roadmapcited by 83
  4. 2024A Framework for Human Evaluation of Large Language Models in Healthcare Derived from Literature Reviewcited by 66
  5. 2024Cactus: Towards Psychological Counseling Conversations using Cognitive Behavioral Theorycited by 60
  6. 2024Self-evolving Agents with reflective and memory-augmented abilitiescited by 52
  7. 2024HealMe: Harnessing Cognitive Reframing in Large Language Models for Psychotherapycited by 47
  8. 2024Recent Advances of Foundation Language Models-based Continual Learning: A Surveycited by 46
  9. 2024CBT-LLM: A Chinese Large Language Model for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-based Mental Health Question Answeringcited by 45
  10. 2025Building Self-Evolving Agents via Experience-Driven Lifelong Learning: A Framework and Benchmarkcited by 45
  11. 2023ChatCounselor: A Large Language Models for Mental Health Supportcited by 44
  12. 2024PsyDT: Using LLMs to Construct the Digital Twin of Psychological Counselor with Personalized Counseling Style for Psychological Counselingcited by 38
  13. 2023Psy-LLM: Scaling up Global Mental Health Psychological Services with AI-based Large Language Modelscited by 36
  14. 2024Richelieu: Self-Evolving LLM-Based Agents for AI Diplomacycited by 36
  15. 2024Do Large Language Models Align with Core Mental Health Counseling Competencies?cited by 19
  16. 2024CBT-Bench: Evaluating Large Language Models on Assisting Cognitive Behavior Therapycited by 12
  17. 2025Psychological Counseling Cannot Be Achieved Overnight: Automated Psychological Counseling Through Multi-Session Conversationscited by 12
  18. 2025Task-Core Memory Management and Consolidation for Long-term Continual Learningcited by 4
  19. 2026PsychEval: A Multi-Session and Multi-Therapy Benchmark for High-Realism AI Psychological Counselorcited by 4
  20. 2025Reinforced Interactive Continual Learning via Real-time Noisy Human Feedbackcited by 3

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025TheraMind: A Strategic and Adaptive Agent for Longitudinal Psychological Counseling
  2. 2025MAGneT: Coordinated Multi-Agent Generation of Synthetic Multi-Turn Mental Health Counseling Sessions
  3. 2024Interactive Agents: Simulating Counselor-Client Psychological Counseling via Role-Playing LLM-to-LLM Interactions
  4. 2025AnnaAgent: Dynamic Evolution Agent System with Multi-Session Memory for Realistic Seeker Simulation
  5. 2025CA+: Cognition Augmented Counselor Agent Framework for Long-term Dynamic Client Engagement
  6. 2026AutoSkill: Experience-Driven Lifelong Learning via Skill Self-Evolution
  7. 2026PsychePass: Calibrating LLM Therapeutic Competence via Trajectory-Anchored Tournaments
  8. 2026MASC: A Multi-Agent Self-Calibration Framework with Latent Construct Alignment for Consistent Client Role-Playing in Psychological Counseling