The guide, "Psychological self-help interventions: delivering self-help for individuals, featuring Step-by-Step and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress," was published on 1 June 2026, according to WHO's publication page. WHO lists the manual as a 141-page publication with ISBN 978-92-4-012078-5 and says a Step-by-Step web annex was released alongside it.
WHO describes individually delivered psychological self-help interventions as structured techniques and exercises that people use largely on their own to manage psychological distress and symptoms linked to mental health, brain health and substance-use conditions. The agency says the support can be delivered through digital platforms, printed materials or video, with or without brief support from trained non-specialists.
The document is an implementation manual rather than a new clinical trial. WHO says it is aimed at programme managers, implementers, supervisors and frontline helpers in health, humanitarian and community settings, and provides tools for planning, adapting and delivering guided or unguided self-help models.
Guided self-help means the person using the programme receives brief regular support while working through the material. WHO's departmental update says the two WHO interventions covered in detail, Step-by-Step and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress, have been tested in randomized controlled trials with about 15 minutes of support over five weeks from trained and supervised non-specialist helpers.
Step-by-Step is WHO's digital intervention for adults with depression. A 2018 article by WHO and partner researchers in mHealth described Step-by-Step as a five-session programme built around behavioural activation, psychoeducation, stress management, positive self-talk, social support and relapse prevention, with support from non-professional e-helpers by telephone, online messaging or secure email.
Doing What Matters in Times of Stress is WHO's stress-management intervention based on acceptance and commitment therapy, according to WHO's 1 June update. Acceptance and commitment therapy is a psychological approach that helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings while taking practical action guided by their values.
WHO says the evidence for self-help approaches is strongest for depression and anxiety and that such interventions have already been recommended in WHO guidelines for several mental health, brain-health and substance-use conditions. The new guide does not by itself prove that every self-help programme works; it gives health systems a delivery model for interventions whose evidence and supervision requirements still vary by condition and setting.