With the aim of supporting women’s psychological well-being and strengthening their ability to cope with stress, we have undertaken an important collaborative initiative with Dr. Mitra Naseh and her team at the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, drawing on the Self-Help Plus (SH+) approach developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). As part of this collaboration, we developed a new tool designed to be accessible, practical, culturally responsive, and adaptable to the diverse needs and contexts of women.

Self-Help Plus (SH+) is an evidence-based psychosocial intervention developed by WHO to help people manage stress, strengthen psychological well-being, and develop practical skills for coping with challenging life circumstances. One of the key strengths of the SH+ approach is its potential to be delivered to large groups and adapted to different cultural and social contexts, including settings where access to specialized mental health and psychosocial support services may be limited.

The newly developed tool builds on these principles and aims to help women strengthen their well-being, develop healthier ways of responding to stress and difficult situations, and acquire practical skills that can be incorporated into their everyday lives. We hope that this work will contribute to strengthening psychosocial support initiatives for women, particularly those experiencing challenging or vulnerable circumstances.

We sincerely thank Dr. Mitra Naseh, her colleagues at the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, and everyone who contributed to this collaborative effort. We greatly value this opportunity to work together toward developing accessible, evidence-based resources that can contribute to promoting women’s psychological well-being and resilience.