JOURNAL OF FAMILY COUNSELING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Year:2017 | Volume:7 | Issue:1 (23) |Papers Count:8

In the fields of psychological sciences, counseling and problem solving by specialist of these fields to confronting with somatic-psycho-familial-social and spiritual damages widespread strategies have been used from prevention to treatment. Particularly in the field of family counseling and psychotherapy, some families and couples confront life-challenging events that, as a highly stressful trauma and taboo, dominates their lives the shadow of distress and hopelessness. The events such as the infertility of the woman or man who has not been effective their various efforts after marriage to give birth a child can be regarded as a very stressful and problematic event that still, in Iran, the merits of all forms of confrontation and coping with it have not become widespread. Indeed, there are provided neither enough bio-treatments, nor counseling treatments for extensive control of this event and its consequences. In addition, the numbers of couples involved in this event and have the necessary ability and skills to cope with and accept life without tension and distress are few. Therefore, research and study on many dimensions of the family function is still nascent, and further study in these areas is necessary.

Burnout is the result of long-term involvement in situations requiring excessive physical, psychological, and social force. This study carried out with the aim of the prediction of marital burnout in couples seeking divorce with awareness of demographic features, mindfulness, and emotional resilience. The research method was descriptive-survey in correlation type. 140 subjects (70 women and 70 men) from couples seeking divorce who referred to the Justice of Khoy city were selected by convenient sampling. To gather the data the Connor-Davidson's Resilience Scale (2003), the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire of Baer, Smith and Allen's (1996), and Pines's couple burnout measurement (2006) were used. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. The findings indicated that by controlling the effects of the demographic variables, the variables of mindfulness (β=-0.10 and P=0.01) and emotional resilience (b=-0.14 and P=0.04) were able to predict the marital burnout of couples seeking divorce. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that a successive avoidance from experiencing the relationship stressful events and the low ability of these couples to amendment the relationship, provides for their marital burnout.

Reducing couples’ marital conflict in the process of treatment of substance dependence disorder can considered one effective factor. This study was administered aimed to the investigation of the effect of emotionally focused couple therapy and problem- centered systems therapy on marital conflict of spouses of the men under treatment of substance dependence. The method of the study was quasi-experimental and its design was pretest posttest with a control group. The statistical population consisted of 32 couples (64 subjects) that their husbands were under treatment of substance abuse in centers of treatment of substance abuse in Sanandej in 2016 that among them 30 qualified couples were selected and were assigned randomly in three groups of 20 subjects, two experimental groups and a control group (each group 10 couples). The couples of experimental groups during 11 weeks, each week a 60-minute session participated in a separate intervention emotionally focused couple therapy and problem- centered systems therapy. The data of the women were gathered using the marital conflict questionnaire of Sanaei Zaker, Alaghband, Falahati, and Houman (2009). To results of the covariance analysis indicated that the differences among the groups were significant (P<0.01, F = 12.194). In addition, the result of the "least significant difference" follow up test showed that compared to the control group, the decrease in marital conflict in experimental groups were significantly (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference between the effects of two models of couple therapy (P<0.120). The results of this study indicated that emotionally focused couple therapy reduced marital conflict by replacing positive cycles instead of negative cycles of conflict and problem- centered systems therapy reduced marital conflict by control of external source of conflict.

The intimacy is from the strengthen foundations of the couples' love, and the forgiveness is required to control the couples' conflict and quarrel and the staying dynamics of their love. The aim of the study was to study the effectiveness of Adlerian group counseling on couples' intimacy and interpersonal forgiveness. The method of the study was quasi-experimental and carried out in the framework of the design of pretest and posttest with control group. The statistical population consisted of the Sanandaj couples of 24-47 years old referring to the counseling and psychological services center of "Partov-e-Bamdad" in 2014 that 3-14 years passed from their marriage. The subjects were 20 people that were selected by non-randomly sampling of convenient and were assigned randomly into two equal groups of 10-people of experimental and control. The members of the experimental group accompanied the 12 sessions of Adlerian group counseling and the control group were on the waiting list. The data were gathered using the Walker and Thompson's intimacy scale (1983) and the interpersonal forgiveness scale of Ehteshamzadeh, Ahadi, Enayati and Heydari (2010). The result of the one variable covariance test indicated that the Adlerian group counseling was effective in increasing the couples intimacy (P=0.001, F=50.011) and all components of interpersonal forgiveness including the re-relationship and controlling the revenge-seeking (P=0.001, F=122.596), controlling the resentment (P=0.013, F=7.646) and the realistic understanding (P=0.001, F=48.563) of spouses. The practice of the Adlerian group counseling increased the couples intimacy and interpersonal forgiveness by enhancing their cooperative interaction and changing their uncompromising ways of life. Therefore, administering other studies to facilitate the usefulness of this practice is recommended for increasing the couples intimacy and interpersonal forgiveness of Iranian couple referring to counseling and psychological services centers

Differentiation is an effective variable in the formation and stability of the family foundation. This study carried out aimed to compare the indices of differentiation in Bowen's intergenerational theory and Iranian families. The method of study was “mixed method”, and were administered using qualitative method of chain exploration strategy and quantitative method of correlation. First, the concepts of differentiation in Bowen theory were extracted. Then through exploratory interviews with 14 parents of Tehran by purposive sampling, which was done in 2016, elements, and components of indices of differentiation in Iranian culture extracted and coded. The accuracy of the obtained indices from the Delphi method verified by a group of specialists. 12 main indices and 78 sub-indices were identified for differentiation in Iranian families. In addition to the indices in the Bowen theory, 25 indices were obtained in the cultural context of the Iranian Parents community. Then the obtained indices converted into the questionnaire and parallel to the revised version of Scoron and Smith's differentiation scale (2003) carried out on a sample of 100 parents that were selected by cluster sampling. The results indicate the correlation between both instruments (r= -0.40, P<0.001). In addition, the correlation matrix showed that the internal correlation coefficients of the obtained differentiation measurement components from the research have a higher correlation coefficient level. The comparison of the obtained indices with the proposed indices in Bowen's theory suggests that although the differentiation relatively is a stable feature, but in sub-indexes can affected by the cultural and social context. Therefore, the inconsistency in the cultural and social context to properly understanding and investigating the psychological structures is very important.

Couple’s adjustment with the satisfaction and stability of the marital life are among the most precious perspective for specialist counselors and therapists focused on improving couples' relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the Iranian psycho educational intervention derived from the attachment theory on the marital adjustment. The research method was semi-experimental and carried out with the design of pre-test, post-test, and two months follow-up. The statistical population consisted of the couples referring to the three cultural centers of Isfahan in 2015. The sample of the study was 30 couples, which were selected through convenient sampling and were assigned randomly to the experimental (15 couples) and control group (15 couples). The intervention was elaborated by referring to the authoritative internal and external sources and its validity was approved by five experts from the specialist of “Family Counseling” at Isfahan University. The couples of experimental group participated in a group training in 8 weeks, each week one session with 120-minute. Control group members did not receive any intervention. To gather the data the dyadic adjustment scale (Spanier, 1976) was used. Data were analyzed using one variable and multivariate covariance analysis. The result of covariance analysis indicated that the Iranian psycho educational intervention derived from the attachment theory were effective to increase the marital adjustment in post-test (F =-0.941, P<0.05) and follow-up (F=0.69, 137.79, P<0.05). Given the available limitations to generalize the results and the novelty of the research, further studies are needed to test the reliability of intervention in the future.

Increasing the level of marital burnout gradually led to involvement of the couples in a stressful and frustrating relationship and eventually leads to weaken the marriage. This study was administered aimed to the comparison of the effect of couples' participation in psycho-educational sessions of schema therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on marital burnout. The study was quasi experimental with the pretest-posttest design of three groups. The statistical population consisted of all of involved couples in marital conflict that referred to the regions of 1-5 of Tehran's counseling centers, in 2016 that among them 120 subjects were selected using convenient sampling method. Then, 48 subjects (24 husband and wife) with the almost higher level in Pines' Marital Burnout Inventory (1996) were assigned randomly into three groups with 16 subjects (8 couples), two experimental groups, and one control group. The couples of experimental groups participated separately in 12 weekly sessions of 90 minutes of study's interventions and in this period, the control group stayed in waiting list. In all stages, the Pines' Marital Burnout Inventory (1996) was the research instrument for data gathering. The results of covariance analysis indicated that the differences among the groups were significant (F= 200.77, p<0.05). In addition, the result of the Tukey's follow-up test showed that in comparison with the acceptance and commitment therapy, the schema therapy were more effective in reducing the marital burnout and two components of emotional exhaustion and psychological exhaustion (p≤0.001). The findings of this study indicated that the psycho-educational intervention of schema therapy. By creating couples' insight about the causes of the development of cognition, emotion and dysfunctional interpersonal behavior, and how eliminate them was more effective in reducing marital burnout.

The phenomenon of infertility, as a stressful event and challenge, has caused expansion distress in couples' life and led to many problems and harms for them. Accordingly, the present study carried out to investigate the effect of emotional-focused couple therapy on the couples' quality of relationship, marital conflict, and intimacy of the infertile couples. The method of the study was quasi-experimental with the pretest, post-test and control group design. The statistical population consisted of all infertile couples referred to infertility clinics of "Royan" and "Ghafghaz" in Ardabil city in 2016. The subjects were 18 people that were selected by convenient sampling method and each of them with their husbands were assigned randomly into two 18 subjects of control and experimental groups (two groups with 9 couples). The experimental group participated into 10 weekly sessions with 90 minutes of emotional-focused couple therapy and any intervention carried out for control group. The data gathered by applying the psychometrics instruments of intimacy scale of Walker & Thompson (1983), marital conflict questionnaire of Janbozorgi and Agah Harris 2011 and the quality of relationship inventory of Pierce, Sarason & Sarason (1991). The results of the multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that emotional-focused couple therapy was effective on increasing of intimacy (P <0.001, F = 45.1), marital conflict reduction (P <0.001, F = 24.7), and improving the quality of relationships of couples (P <0.001, F = 8668 / F). Therefore, it can be suggested that applying this intervention can be verified as an effective strategy to reduce the distress of couples' relationship and improve the marital relationship of the infertile spouses in other cities of Iran