Human Insight, Digital Intelligence

Human Insight, Digital Intelligence:

Exploring the meeting point between psychotherapy, research and emerging technologies

As artificial intelligence, machine learning and increasingly sophisticated forms of data analysis begin to reshape healthcare, research and everyday life, psychotherapy faces important questions about its own future.

How might technology deepen our understanding of what works, for whom and under what circumstances? Can data help us deliver more personalised and responsive psychotherapy? What can qualitative research and lived experience tell us that algorithms cannot? And, as technology becomes more capable, what remains uniquely human about the therapeutic relationship?

Metanoia Institute's 2027 conference, Human Insight, Digital Intelligence, brings together psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, researchers, educators and students to explore these questions — not by placing the human and the technological in opposition, but by asking what each can contribute to the future of psychotherapy.

At the heart of the conference will be a conversation between the personal and the machine.

We will explore the deeply human dimensions of psychotherapy such as lived experience, meaning-making, relationships, clinical judgement and qualitative enquiry, alongside rapidly developing approaches including quantitative research, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Together, we will consider how these different forms of knowledge might inform one another, and how technological advances could complement, rather than replace, the fundamentally human nature of psychotherapy.

Keynote speakers

We are delighted to announce two keynote speakers for the conference:

Professor Jaime Delgadillo, King's College London
Professor Delgadillo's research explores psychological treatments, clinical outcomes and the use of data to understand and improve mental healthcare.

Professor Naomi Moller, The Open University
Professor Moller is a counselling psychologist and psychotherapy researcher whose work encompasses psychotherapy process and outcomes, qualitative research and the experiences of clients and practitioners.

Together, their contributions will help frame a wider conversation spanning different research traditions and perspectives on the future of therapeutic practice.

Conference themes

The programme will explore themes including:

• Personalisation in psychotherapy

• Lived experience, meaning-making and qualitative inquiry

• Quantitative approaches to psychotherapy research

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning

• Prediction and psychotherapy outcomes

• AI-assisted research

• Digital mental health and therapeutic practice

• Clinical judgement and algorithmic prediction

• Ethics, responsibility and bias

• The therapeutic relationship in an increasingly digital world

• What should — and shouldn't — be automated?

• What remains uniquely human about psychotherapy?

Through keynote presentations, research papers, workshops and discussion, Human Insight, Digital Intelligence will create space for curiosity, challenge and genuine dialogue about where psychotherapy is heading.

This is not a conference about choosing between people and technology.

It is a conversation about how we ensure that, as our tools become more intelligent, our understanding of people becomes deeper too.

Conference fee includes:

Two breaks with tea, coffee and light refreshments. Lunch is not included.

7 CPD hours and a certificate are included with attendance.

18 February 2027
DoubleTree by Hilton London Ealing

Further programme details and booking information will be announced soon.