The eResilience App Proof-of-Concept Clinical Trial among African participants who survived Humanitarian Emergencies

A standardized protocol has been designed for the therapeutic intervention proposed for this experiment (App). Audio exercises recorded via a text-to-speech software will be delivered to participants via mobile technology for self-administration at home. There are 48 daily tasks ranging between 20'' to 10 minutes each, to be completed over a 1 week period (90-100 minutes per day for 7 consecutive days). Built as a multimodal approach, the tasks are categorized across seven different blocks. Blocks 1, 3, 4, and 6 focus on body stabilization. It aims to promote a sense of safety, physiological awareness and regulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), optimizing heart rate variability (HRV), restoring parasympathetic tone, and enhancing inhibition ?of automated defense systems in non-life threatening environments. Techniques include somatic experiencing, breath work, biofeedback, muscle relaxation, guided visualization, and bilateral tapping during drumming sounds. Blocks 2 and 7 target the relational domain, introducing effective working models of attachment, self-reflective information processing and positive affect enhancement. Techniques include interpersonal skills development, initiation and engagement of altruistic tasks. Block 5 introduces mindfulness practice. Exercises focus on practice of mindful attention shifting from external surroundings (objects and sounds) to internal body awareness (grounding, sensation tracking, self-attribution, meaning-making, coping resources and positive affect), with the purpose of enhancing overall executive function capacities and further promote sense of internal safety.