# PSY-STEP: Structuring Therapeutic Targets and Action Sequences for Proactive Counseling Dialogue Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04448 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04448/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 16 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Apr 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

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- [SODA: Million-scale Dialogue Distillation with Social Commonsense Contextualization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10465/) (2022)
- [CPsyCoun: A Report-based Multi-turn Dialogue Reconstruction and Evaluation Framework for Chinese Psychological Counseling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16433/) (2024)
- [Keep Me Updated! Memory Management in Long-term Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08750/) (2022)
- [Human Evaluation of Conversations is an Open Problem: comparing the sensitivity of various methods for evaluating dialogue agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04723/) (2022)
- [PEARL: Prompting Large Language Models to Plan and Execute Actions Over Long Documents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14564/) (2023)
- [Cactus: Towards Psychological Counseling Conversations using Cognitive Behavioral Theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.03103/) (2024)
- [HealMe: Harnessing Cognitive Reframing in Large Language Models for Psychotherapy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05574/) (2024)
- [CBT-LLM: A Chinese Large Language Model for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-based Mental Health Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16008/) (2024)
- [Training Models to Generate, Recognize, and Reframe Unhelpful Thoughts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.02768/) (2023)
- [MIRROR: Multimodal Cognitive Reframing Therapy for Rolling with Resistance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13211/) (2025)
- [Mixed-Session Conversation with Egocentric Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02503/) (2024)
- [ConsistentChat: Building Skeleton-Guided Consistent Multi-Turn Dialogues for Large Language Models from Scratch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03558/) (2025)
- [PanicToCalm: A Proactive Counseling Agent for Panic Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21143/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) aims to identify and restructure automatic negative thoughts pertaining to involuntary interpretations of events, yet existing counseling agents struggle to identify and address them in dialogue settings. To bridge this gap, we introduce STEP, a dataset that models CBT counseling by explicitly reflecting automatic thoughts alongside dynamic, action-level counseling sequences. Using this dataset, we train STEPPER, a counseling agent that proactively elicits automatic thoughts and executes cognitively grounded interventions. To further enhance both decision accuracy and empathic responsiveness, we refine STEPPER through preference learning based on simulated, synthesized counseling sessions. Extensive CBT-aligned evaluations show that STEPPER delivers more clinically grounded, coherent, and personalized counseling compared to other strong baseline models, and achieves higher counselor competence without inducing emotional disruption.