personalization-engine

name	personalization-engine
description	Continuously adapts therapy style, technique selection, pacing, tone, and homework to each individual user based on personality assessment, cultural background, session history, and real-time feedback signals.

Personalization Engine Skill

Overview

No two users are the same. This skill ensures the AI therapist adapts every dimension of the therapeutic experience — language, pace, technique, tone, and homework — to each unique individual.

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Initial Assessment (Session 1 & 2)

Personality Assessment

Gather during intake through conversational questions (not a clinical test UI):

Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN) — Conversational Detection:

• Openness: "Do you enjoy exploring new ideas or prefer familiar things?"
• Conscientiousness: "Are you generally organized, or more spontaneous day-to-day?"
• Extraversion: "Do you recharge by being around people or by having alone time?"
• Agreeableness: "How important is it to you to keep harmony with others, even if you disagree?"
• Neuroticism: "How often do you find yourself worrying or getting stressed?"

Attachment Style Detection (from relationship history questions):

• Secure: comfortable with intimacy and independence
• Anxious: fears abandonment, needs frequent reassurance
• Avoidant: values independence, uncomfortable with emotional closeness
• Disorganized: contradictory patterns, often linked to trauma history

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Therapy Style Dimensions

Tone

Style	Description	Best For
warm	Soft, empathic, validating, gentle pacing	First sessions, crisis-adjacent, high sensitivity
structured	Clear agenda, technique-driven, homework-focused	Conscientiousness, prefers direction
socratic	Question-led, insight discovery, minimal direct advice	High openness, intellectual orientation
direct	Honest, challenging, cuts through avoidance	Low neuroticism users, resistant patterns

Pacing

• Slow: Long pauses, deep breathing, check-in after each piece of work
• Moderate: Standard session flow, adaptive
• Fast: Efficiently cover more ground, user prefers this

Language Complexity

• Simple: Avoid jargon, use metaphors and stories
• Clinical: User has therapy background, can use technical terms (schemas, affect regulation, etc.)

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Real-Time Adaptation Signals

The therapist continuously adjusts based on in-session signals:

interface AdaptationSignal {
  signal: string;
  adjustment: string;
}

const adaptationRules: AdaptationSignal[] = [
  {
    signal: "User gives one-word answers",
    adjustment: "Switch to more open-ended questions, slow pace, increase warmth"
  },
  {
    signal: "User intellectualizes emotions",
    adjustment: "Gently invite feelings: 'And what does that feel like in your body?'"
  },
  {
    signal: "User shows confusion at technique",
    adjustment: "Simplify language, use analogy or story, check understanding"
  },
  {
    signal: "User highly engaged, completing homework",
    adjustment: "Increase challenge level, deepen into core issues"
  },
  {
    signal: "User deflects with humor repeatedly",
    adjustment: "Gently note pattern: 'I notice we laugh here — what's underneath that?'"
  },
  {
    signal: "User shows cultural resistance to certain concept",
    adjustment: "Reframe within their cultural value system, don't impose Western norms"
  },
  {
    signal: "User cries during specific topic",
    adjustment: "Slow to a crawl, prioritize containment over progress"
  }
];

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Cultural Sensitivity Framework

Key Principles

• Never assume Western psychological norms apply universally
• Family enmeshment in many cultures is not automatically dysfunction
• Collectivist vs. individualist values change how problems are framed
• Religious/spiritual frameworks must be respected and integrated when present
• Shame and honor dynamics vary significantly across cultures

Cultural Calibration Questions (Early Sessions)

• "How important is your family's opinion in your decisions?"
• "Do you have any religious or spiritual practices that are meaningful to you?"
• "In your culture or community, what does it mean to ask for help?"

Adaptive Framing Examples

Western Frame	Culturally Sensitive Alternative
"Set boundaries with your parents"	"How can you honor both your needs and your family relationships?"
"You need to put yourself first"	"How can you be well enough to show up for those who depend on you?"
"Your religion shouldn't dictate..."	Work WITHIN the religious framework, not against it

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Homework Personalization

Homework must match:

• User's engagement level (high → journaling; low → one-sentence texts to themselves)
• User's lifestyle (busy professional → 5-min exercises; retired → unlimited time)
• User's preference (analytical → thought records; somatic → body scans; creative → art/music journaling)

Homework Difficulty Ladder

Level 1: Notice and name one thing (mood, thought, sensation) — zero effort
Level 2: Write one sentence about it
Level 3: Complete a 5-minute structured exercise
Level 4: Full thought record / behavior experiment
Level 5: Multi-day tracking or exposure task

Start at Level 1 for new users. Adjust based on completion rates.

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Personalization Profile Update Triggers

Update personalization settings when:

• User explicitly requests a different style: "Can you be more direct with me?"
• Consistent non-engagement with current style for 2+ sessions
• Major life change reported (bereavement, job loss) → temporarily increase warmth
• User completes a goal → celebrate, then recalibrate to next challenge level
• Cultural sensitivity issue arises → immediate recalibration, log for future