Based at the Curtin University enAble Institute, our research and innovation are led by Experience in three, fundamental ways:

We are led by the lived experience of people who have faced, or are facing, challenges to their mental health. 

We are led by our experienced and diverse team of interdisciplinary researchers, collaborators, practitioners and partners.

We are all led by experience. We assume that when people can reach and maintain the experiences they want, they are living a healthy, fulfilling life.

Innovation, Research & Implementation

At LEx, we develop and test innovative and diverse ways to support people to live the life they want by addressing mental health challenges. In particular, we follow the priorities of people with diverse, unmet mental health needs across the spectrum of severity and complexity, and we innovate methods that are co-designed, theory-driven, evidenced-based, and globally scalable. We can produce a fully integrated approach because we follow universal unmet needs and use a universal theory - perceptual control theory - to design and test our innovations. 

So how do we work at LEx?

Lived Experience Research

Our work is led by the needs of our stakeholders - and in particular people with lived and living experience of mental health challenges. We aim to help improve outcomes that are meaningful to people in their own lives. We work with co-investigators who have lived experience, and our interventions are co-designed.

Theory, Model and Process Testing

We design a range of studies that test the theory we use – perceptual control theory, and the models that it generates. We also develop ways to measure the process of change, how it is harnessed by our interventions, and related to outcomes. A key strand of this work is to build and test computer models against real-world data

Codesign

We work alongside those with lived experience of mental health challenges to develop, refine and adapt our interventions

Intervention Testing

We test our interventions through a cascade of pilot work, case series, feasibility trials and randomised controlled trials. We interview our users to find out if we meet their needs and how we can make further improvements.

Implementation

We offer training in person and online, and work closely with our service partners to embed our work into everyday life.

Feedback all the way

We are all ‘work in progress’ and this applies as much to each of us as it does to science. We actively seek feedback at every stage of our work.

Meet the Team

LEx is directed by Warren Mansell, and supported by Isabeau Tindall and Aimee Wrightson-Hester

Director

Professor Warren Mansell

Warren is the Director of the LEx Mental Health Research Group and Professor of Mental Health at Curtin University. He grew up in the small countryside town of Biggin Hill in the UK, where he developed a love of nature and science. An academic at heart, he gained a first class degree at University of Cambridge and a PhD at Oxford, before training as a clinical psychologist at Kings College, London. He spent most of his research career at University of Manchester, authoring over 200 peer-reviewed publications, including therapy manuals, edited handbooks and popular science books. At Curtin University since 2022, he uses the scientific approach known as perceptual control theory (PCT) to develop and test universal and scalable mental health interventions.

Research Fellow

Dr Isabeau Tindall

Isabeau is a Research Fellow in the LEx Mental Health Research Group. She was born and raised within Perth, Western Australia. She gained a first-class honours Psychology degree in 2014, and PhD in 2020, from the University of Western Australia. Her PhD focused on the impact of anxiety and ethnicity on face-recognition accuracy. Isabeau is passionate about, and has published numerous papers on, understanding the impact of negative emotionality on mental health and well-being, across diverse settings, such as, within the workplace and university context. Isabeau’s past employment history includes positions within consultancy and research. She has worked on projects focusing on innovation within the energy sector, and conducted mentoring programs across the construction, resources, and renewable energy sectors. Joining Curtin University in 2020, she previously worked within the Future of Work Institute, where she co-designed, with clients, online training modules focusing on improving mental health and wellbeing within the workplace. Since 2022, Isabeau has used her expertise to support the development of various transdiagnostic and scalable mental health interventions informed by Perceptual Control Theory.

Research Associate

Dr Aimee Wrightson-Hester

Aimee is a Research Associate in the LEx Mental Health Research Group. Originally from the UK, she moved to Australia with her family after completing high school. She gained a first-class honours Psychology degree at Edith Cowan University in Perth and is currently finishing her PhD in sexual violence and bystander behaviour in nightlife settings. Passionate about supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people, during her undergraduate degree and PhD, Aimee has also been a peer-mentor and workshop facilitator at dedicated wellbeing organisations for kids and adolescents, community hubs, and high schools across the Perth metro area. At Curtin since 2022, she has used this passion to focus on the development of an artificially intelligent chatbot, MYLO. MYLO emulates Method of Levels therapy (informed by perceptual control theory) to support young people to explore and resolve their problems whenever and wherever they would like to.

PhD Candidate

Catarina Castela

Catarina is a PhD candidate at Curtin University. She was born in Portugal and moved to Australia at a young age. Since then, she has lived all over Australia and in several countries, such as Macau and Dubai, UAE. Finding a passion for art early in life, she began her career as a graphic artist/designer while living on the Gold Coast, QLD. She has over 20 years of experience working as an in-house designer, freelancer, team leader and art director with several national organisations, brands and international companies such as Nakheel on projects including The Palm and World Islands in Dubai. Catarina has experience working in the tertiary education sector since 2008, developing accredited curricula, training packages, and resource materials and delivering lectures in fine art, digital illustration, graphic design, brand development, marketing and advertising. In 2016, she completed her master's degree at Curtin University, focused on neuroaesthetics and understanding the nature of the cognitive and psychological underpinnings of aesthetic preference. Catarina’s PhD is grounded in lived experience and focuses on using art to monitor mood fluctuations in bipolar disorder and facilitate intuitive symptom management to optimise treatment outcomes and map key turning points on the recovery journey.

PhD Candidate

Michael Landman

Born and raised in sunny Perth, Western Australia, Michael (Mike) has lived a delightfully privileged childhood and early adulthood. Coming from a lively household of three brothers, Mike is constantly looking for opportunities to augment productive professional contexts with humour. Professionally, Michael is enamoured by Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) and the effective application of PCT that emerges from a deep understanding of its theoretical tenants. This interest is accompanied by an affinity for innovating novel methodologies that marry PCT with parallel reservoirs of scientific knowledge. Currently, this involves understanding the patterns of pupil dilation during therapeutic dialogue (the Method of Levels). Michael has also championed the development of a virtual reality experience designed to measure an aspect of human consciousness from the perspective of the observer. Michael aspires to balance an appreciation for theoretical nuance, whilst adhering to the pragmatic limitations of developing solutions to real-world problems. Convinced that solutions to such problems transcend disciplinary boundaries (especially psychological problems), Michael’s PhD candidature in Psychology serves as a platform from which to conduct future interdisciplinary research on psychological problems – theoretical & applied.

Visiting Professor of Clinical Psychology

Masaru Kinetsuki

Professor Kanetsuki is a clinical psychologist in cognitive behavioral therapy. Over the last decade, he became interested in developing more effective mental health interventions based on perceptual control theory, influenced by the works of Professor Mansell.

During his stay in Perth, he will examine the process of cultural adaptation among Japanese international students in Western Australia. Potentially, the process of cultural adaptation and the process of mental health recovery share a common mechanism - the awareness and reorganisation of goal conflicts.

Professor Kinetsuki will also work on translating and adapting the research and interventions of the LEx group for Japan.

Our Lived Experience
Codesigners & Co-Investigators

Our work is guided by the ideas and contributions of a variety of stakeholders, many of whom have lived, or living, experience of mental health challenges. Here are some of our most valued contributors.

Jamie Neal

Jamie has a lived experience of an eating disorder, C-PTSD, ADHD, parasuicide and Fibromyalgia. She holds a BA in Creative Advertising and Graphic Design from Curtin University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Psychological Science.

As a lead researcher with Curtin's enAble Institute, Jamie was a recipient of the inaugural IgnitED grant and was recently published in the Journal for Eating Disorders. She was invited to speak on the IgnitED Panel at the opening of the Australian Eating Disorders Research and Translation Centre (AEDRTC).

Currently, Jamie is a Consumer Co-Lead on multiple research projects and works as a Peer Practitioner at the St. James Transitional Care Unit. She is a member of several advisory groups, including AEDRTC's Lived Experience and Co-Production Advisory Group, Curtin University Mental Health Research Consumer Advisory Group, The Mental Health Commission's (MHC) Suicide Aftercare Working Group, and the MHC's Eating Disorder Network Steering Committee. Additionally, she represented WAPHA as a delegate at the MHLEEN 2023 leadership conference.

Jamie is honoured to be involved with 'LEx Group' and is proud to have contributed work as a graphic designer, voice-over artist and consumer representative.

Georgia Anderson

Georgie Anderson is a Lived Experience mental health, disability and LGBTIQA+ advocate, consultant and researcher.

They have a lived experience of complex trauma, suicide, chronic illness and homelessness.

Georgie was the Consumer Advisor on the Ministerial Taskforce into Public Mental Health Services for Infants, Children and Adolescents ages 0-18 in WA. They were responsible for articulating and advocating for the needs of all young people that access public mental health care.

They are a passionate advocate for a human rights and intersectionality based approach to mental health care, system reform and research.

Particular areas of focus in their advocacy include improving the experience of care for people, ensuring outcome measurements are individualised, holistic and with a focus on quality of life, equitable access to care that meets the individual persons needs, and meaningful engagement with people with lived experience in all aspects of service and system reform.

Since 2015, Georgie has worked with several organisations across many projects, including North Metropolitan Youth Mental Health, Youth Focus, Child and Adolescent Health Service, Curtin University, Western Australian Association for Mental Health, Youth Affairs Council of WA, and Consumers of Mental Health WA.

They are knowledgeable in lived experience engagement practices and have been instrumental in ensuring lived experience expertise is central in the design, implementation and evaluation of projects and services.

Georgie works as a Lived Experience Researcher in the mental health domain of the Curtin enAble Institute. They contribute lived experience expertise to research activities and undertake lived experience and stakeholder engagement activities.

Georgia is a Co-Investigator on the Innovation Challenge 2021: Child and Youth Mental Health Grant for the Managing your life online (MYLO) application, and the Dynamic Catalysts project.

Kathy Greenwood

Mental Health and Wellbeing Advocate

Kathy has worked in various lived experience roles across the mental health sector for almost 20 years. She has personally been through a lot of adversity in her life, which guides a great deal of her interpersonal work with others. She has been employed within clinical and community-based settings to develop peer programs and bring the lived experience perspective to treatment/support teams. She has contributed in many ways to independent advocacy, mental health system reform and the development of lived experience resources, training pathways and employment possibilities. Kathy aims to amplify the voice of lived experience within our communities by training, mentoring, and supporting people to build confidence and skills related to having mental health challenges. She contributes to sector capacity building through collaboration with clinicians and researchers, lending her personal reflections on trauma and what helps healing. She has been very involved in the Dynamic Catalysts project and has found the process both intriguing and helpful, particularly the mapping of experiences which she says brought deep insight and a sense of self compassion. She is excited to see what comes from this project as it moves forward.

Our Interventions

MYLO

Our award-winning smartphone-based mental health chatbot that helps the user to explore their problems in more depth and detail to come to a resolution.

See here for our dedicated website, and here for our Curtinnovation Health Sciences Award 2023 video.

4Ds for Dealing with Distress

A 90-minute comprehensive, interactive and experiential workplace stress management webinar. Attendees go at their own pace and select the balance of short and long term approaches to stress that work for their problems.

See here for the article describing the science and practice of 4Ds, and here for our online guide published by Psyche.

The Take Control Course

A group intervention for people to grasp the key principles of mental health and wellbeing and apply them in their everyday life.

See this article for the latest research on the course.

Dynamic Catalysts

An analysis of the biopsychosocial factors that a person can draw upon to support them at any stage in their mental health recovery. The starting point of this analysis is the detailed accounts of turning points of recovery by those with diverse mental health challenges. The end point is a universal, accessible system that provides a choice of catalysts tailored to the individual at that moment in time.

Discovery Talk

A way for a speaker to talk to a listener about a current problem that helps them to explore it in more depth and detail to come to a resolution. Anyone can begin to learn Discovery Talk and apply it in their everyday life.

Current Research

We are working on a number of research projects that underpin the science of our interventions

Consciousness

Our conscious mind is the arena where we make new meanings of our experience and learn new perceptions of ourselves and the world. We research a model of consciousness based on perceptual control theory, bringing together work on fringe consciousness, information integration and instinctive curiosity.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality has been around for many decades, but only now are its unique properties being tapped for research and intervention. We are exploring the use of VR to generate 'unreal' environments that help clarify concepts such as free will and presence, and that allow the user to control features of their environment that would be impossible in real life, as a stepping stone to facing fears and phobias.

Expressivity & Recovery

We are researching the benefits of the expression of one's experiences, in all its many forms, including journaling, free writing, expressive writing, autobiographies, and the visual arts. How fundamental is expression to recovery from a mental health challenge?

Recent Publications

An Artificial Therapist (Manage Your Life Online) to Support the Mental Health of Youth: Co-Design and Case Series

Wrightson-Hester, A. R., Anderson, G., Dunstan, J., McEvoy, P. M., Sutton, C. J., Myers, B., ... & Mansell, W. (2023). JMIR Human Factors, 10(1), e46849.

An Integrative Control Theory Perspective on Consciousness

Advanced online publication at Psychological Review. Author accepted manuscript available here.

A brief transdiagnostic group (the take control course) compared to individual low-intensity CBT for depression and anxiety: a randomized non-inferiority trial

Morris, L., Lovell, K., McEvoy, P., Emsley, R., Carter, L. A., Edge, D., ... & Mansell, W. (2023). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 52(3), 176-197.

Our Network

LEx is closely linked with a number of international networks. LEx takes a universal approach to mental health shared with the 'transdiagnostic' approach, and LEx is founded on the principles of perceptual control theory, a scientific framework supported by the IAPCT. Professor Mansell is collaborates with colleagues in the UK, using PCT to support Empowered Conversations, a communication training program for carers of people living with dementia, and a variety of innovations in mental health service design in collaboration with Professor Sara Tai, Dr Rob Griffiths, and Dr Vyv Huddy.

For a complete list of our collaborators and co-investigators, please click here.

The Transdiagnostic Mental Health Network

International Association of Perceptual Control Theory (IAPCT)

Empowered Conversations

Mental Health Service Design

Our Co-Investigators

We are working with a large multidisciplinary team of co-investigators on our research, and selection of our team have provided their details here.

Sarah Egan, Associate Professor, Curtin University

Transdiagnostic approaches to co-designed interventions to improve outcomes for young people across anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

Prof Egan collaborates on transdiagnostic approaches to improving mental health with the research group, for example, as a co-investigator of MYLO.

Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, Professor, Curtin University

Data Science, Machine Learning, and research software for digital health.

Professor Johnston-Hollitt is director of the Curtin Institute for Data Science and collaborates on the data science and research software development for digital interventions such as MYLO.

Wai Chen, Professor of Youth Mental Health and Developmental Neuropsychiatry, Fiona Stanley Hospital;

Curtin University

Neurodevelopmental disorders, emotion dysregulation, language and development, alexithymia, transdiagnostic and dimensional nosology research, social research, self-harm, gaming disorder, psychopharmacology.

Professor Chen collaborates on digital intervention, as a co-investigator of MYLO.

Daniel Rudaizky, Lecturer, Curtin University

Cognitive approaches to understanding emotions and behaviour.

Collaborating on understanding the mechanisms that contribute to effective fear reduction in specific phobias, and exploring these within a virtual reality environment.

Tauseef Gulrez, Adjunct Associate Professor, Curtin University

Dr Gulrez collaborates on development, assessment and comparison of PCT-based models with classical Machine Learning Models, in order to develop a novel Learning-Less AI paradigm. He also collaborates on developing computer mediated consciousness assessment experiments.

David Preece, Lecturer, Curtin University

Clinical psychologist. The understanding, assessment, and treatment of emotional disorders. Emotion regulation & alexithymia. Transdiagnostic approaches. Statistics.

Collaborating on surveys to establish core transdiagnostic processes.