Research areas

• – Formal modeling
• – Interpersonality
• – Clinical Psychology
• – Psychotherapy research

Methodological and/or psychotherapeutic expertise

• – Interactive psychological paradigms
• – Agent-based modeling
• – Psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral; psychodynamic; neo-humanistic)

Short biography

Stefan Westermann holds the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy IV at the Witten/Herdecke University and is one of the founding members of the Modeling and Simulation interest group of the Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy section of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). He uses formal modeling to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the formation, maintenance and psychotherapeutic change of mental disorders whose components are not localized in an individual but extend dyadically across two individuals.

Relevant publications

• Westermann, S., & Banisch, S. (2024). A formal model of interpersonality. Clinical Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/21677026241229663

Relevant funded research projects

• – Scientific Network Computational Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Network (ccpp.network): Formal models and empirically informed simulations of the formation, maintenance and change of psychopathology (DFG project; started in 2024)
• - International Short Visit, Modeling mental disorders as attractors in a dynamic system (SNF funding; 2015)