JOURNAL OF FAMILY COUNSELING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Year:2020 | Volume:9 | Issue:2 (28) |Papers Count:12

Two couple therapy approaches based on acceptance and commitment and emotionally focused couple therapy are valuable and evidence-based approaches that have been supported by a great deal of research. Purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of acceptance and commitment-based couple therapy and emotionally focused couple therapy on unadjusted couples' attachment styles. The statistical population of the study included all couples who referred to Sina Family Counseling Center in Dezful in 1397. The research sample was selected by purposeful sampling. Subjects included 6 couples (n= 12) who referred to this clinic and were classified as unadjusted couples according to the score of marital adjustment questionnaire. In this study, a single case design of asynchronous multiple baseline type was used. Acceptance and commitment-based couple therapy and emotionally focused protocols were administered in three baselines and 12 sessions (90 minutes) and two months' follow-ups. Subjects responded to the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) Spanier (1976) and the Adult Attachment Style (RAAS) Collins and Reed (1990). Data were analyzed using visual charting, reliable change index and percent improvement formula. Findings showed that in the group whose therapy was based on acceptance and commitment level of improvement after treatment and follow-up, respectively, secured attachment (20. 38%, 19. 69%), avoidant attachment (27. 30%, 28. 49%), anxiety attachment (25. 98%, 26. 47%) and in the emotionally focused couples group, the level of improvement after treatment and follow up were respectively for secure attachment (33. 93%, 36. 32%) and avoidance attachment (37%, 40. 36%), Anxiety attachment (35. 97%, 33. 67%). Therefore, the results show that acceptance and commitment-based couple therapy and emotionally focused couple therapy are both effective in reducing avoidant attachment styles and anxiety attachment. However, only emotionally focused couple therapy is effective in increasing couples' secure attachment.

This study examined the effectiveness of "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy" on increasing the life quality and reducing the desire for divorce in couples. The present research design was semi-experimental type with pre-test, post-test and control group. The statistical population was among the newly married couples referring to "Hekmat counseling center" that 40 couples (40 men and 40 women) were selected available sampling and then were divided randomly into two groups of 20 couples (experimental group and control group). The World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire was developed in 1996 by a group of World Health Organization experts & the standard questionnaire of divorce desire of Rusbult, Johnson & Morrow (1986) were used for gathering the data. In conducting the therapeutic intervention, experimental group were trained 8 sessions (one session per week), by "group method" With the approach of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy; while the control group received no intervention. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA) in SPSS software. Results indicated that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy was effective in increasing life quality and physical (F=3/59; P-Value<0/05), mental (F=6/13; P-Value<0/05), and environmental health components (F=6/10; P-Value<0/05), but they're not lasting effect. Also, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy was effective in decreasing the desire for divorce (F=6/67; P-Value<0/05), but they're not lasting effect. The study findings can be used in the direction of the clinical and therapeutic interventions to increase the life quality and reduce the desire for couples divorce.

Emotional divorce plays a vital role in family breakdown that its consequences are more than legal divorce. Attachment style and marital conflict are effective psychological factors in creating emotional distance between couples. Attachment styles provides a framework for understanding marital relationships and Conflict Management. This research was conducted aiming at determining the effectiveness of Olson circumplex model training on behaviors arising from attachment styles and marital conflicts. The study was a semi-experimental research of pretest-posttest type with a control group. 16 couples were selected among the applicants seeking couples' treatment to Neiestan clinic in the year 95-96, they were selected by using purposeful sampling method. After the interview, they were assigned to two experimental and control groups (two groups of eight couples) by random sampling. During the execution of the program, a couple in test group was went out. Before and after training, Gottman's emotional divorce questionnaire (1995), Collins & Reed attachment styles questionnaire (1990), Marital conflict questionnaire's Sanai (1387) were executed as research instruments in both groups, after collecting data, the findings that obtained from data analysis by covariance method indicated that there is a significant difference in conflict scores (F=7. 778, Sig = 0. 01) and maladaptive behaviors caused by avoidance (F= 11. 873, Sig= 0. 002) and anxiety attachment / ambivalence (F=22. 611, Sig= 0. 0001) between the two groups but there was no significant difference in the secure attachment variable (F= 2. 549, Sig=0. 123 ) (p< 0. 05). According to the findings, this method seems to be effective in reducing marital conflict behaviors as well as behaviors arising from unsafe attachment styles.

With the extension of technology and cyberspace, facilitating communication and marital infidelity has become a threat to the family, which can make difficulties in marital satisfaction and couples' emotions. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of compassion focused group counseling on emotion regulation strategies and marital satisfaction of betrayal women with cyber infidelity. The research method was Semi-experimental, with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up and control group. The study population was all married women referred to "Tolou" Consulting Center in Harsin city in 2018 year, which Twenty-four of them were selected in a purposeful way after controlling the entrance and exit criteria, and randomly assigned to two 12-member experimental and control group. The research tools in this study were Hudson's (1992) marital satisfaction scale and Granefski et al (2002) emotion regulation strategies. Also compassion focused session, presented to the experimental group in 90 minutes 12 sessions. To investigate the research hypotheses, the descriptive statistic and repeated measures analysis of variance in spss software used. findings showed that significant differences between two group in terms of marital satisfaction(F=11. 84, 27. 06) and adaptive(F=14. 94, 27. 47) and non-adaptive(F=25. 08, 22. 81) strategies for emotion regulation in posttest and follow-up, also the effect of stability over time (9. 11, 10. 22, 7. 75) as well as interaction between time and therapeutic effect(6. 32, 25. 08, 19. 12) was significant (p<0. 05). The results indicate that compassion focused group counseling reduces non-adaptive emotional self-regulation strategies, and also increased adaptive strategies and marital satisfaction of women. Therefore, this approach can be used to improve the psychological characteristics of women involved in marital infidelity.

Divorce is the cause of the disruption of the most fundamental element of society (i. e., the family). After the death of a spouse, a great deal of change is needed for post-divorce adjustment. The objective of this study was to develop a qualitative post-divorce adjustment model for women based on the grounded theory. The research population included all divorced women referring to the counseling centers supervised by the Welfare Organization in Ahvaz. The participants included 20 divorced women who were selected through purposive method; they participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin’ s systematic method. 265 primary codes, 43 subcategories, 17 main categories and one core category were extracted from the data. The main categories included others’ strategic support, religious confrontation, facilitative patience, financial management, communication and environment borderlines, morality and self-control, children existence, personality and education structures, the way to be in a former life, self-study practice, soothing pursuits, personal development, meaningful social presence, growth opportunities for children, search for specialized assistance, jobs and education, freedom from divorce cage and problem-solving skills. Subsequently, post-divorce adjustment (a quest for independence and peace) was chosen as the final category. Finally, a paradigmatic model was derived from the data. The results are beneficial for supportive agencies as well as family counselors in providing appropriate solutions and facilitating the post-divorce adjustment.

Couples' communication patterns are one way of assessing family structure that determines how couples interact and affect family performance. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Karen Horney's Psychoanalysis and cognitive therapy on the communication patterns of the neurotic married women. The research method is quasi-experimental study with randomized controlled design with two experimental groups and one control group. The statistical population includes 300 married women who referred to some counseling centers East of Tehran due to problems with their spouse in 2016 and 2017. The sample of the study was available sample and included 45 married women who were neurotic according to the results of the "Horney-Coolidge Tridimensional Inventory" distributed before treatment. Experimental groups received 15 sessions of individual counseling with cognitive therapy and Karen Horney's Psychoanalysis approach respectively, once or twice a week. Christensen & Sullaway Communication Patterns Questionnaire (1984) was distributed among the experimental groups in three stages of baseline, mid stage and end of intervention and also between control groups simultaneously. The Findings indicated that there was a significant effect of therapeutic interventions on time and interactive effect of time and group in all three communication patterns. The cross-constructive communication pattern increased significantly (f=211/92, P<0. 001) and expectation/withdrawal (f= 313/19, P<0. 001) and cross-avoidance (f= 104/35, P<0. 001) communication patterns decreased significantly in both experimental groups. There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of the two types of psychotherapy on cross-constructive and cross-avoidance communication patterns, while Karen Horney's Psychoanalysis showed a significant difference in the reduction of expectation-withdrawal communication pattern compared to cognitive therapy (P<0. 001).

In most of the existential philosophy texts, the interpersonal and close relationships have been studied. Therefore, to the enhancement, interpersonal relationships testing psychotherapies elicited from such a philosophy is quite significant. However, which method is the most effective on this ground? The purpose of this research is to study the comparison of the effectiveness of existential, cognitive-existential and humanistic-existential group psychotherapy on behavioral self-regulation for effective relationships among type II diabetes and obesity in women. The method of the research was experimental and its experimental design includes the pretest, post-test and two-month follow-up test with experimental and control parallel groups. Cases of this study included women with co-morbidity type II diabetes and obesity referring to the Specialist Diabetes Clinic of Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj in the first three months of 2019. After screening the level of behavioral self-regulation for effective relationships, 32 subjects were selected by simple random sampling method from this society and were assigned to three experimental and one control group by substitutive random method. The data were collected based on the scale of behavioral self-regulation for effective relationships Wilson, Charker, Lizzio, Halford & Kimlin (2005). After the pre-test, the experimental groups participated in 120-minute sessions for 9 weeks. Data were analyzed by the statistical test of repeated measures of the General Linear Model and the SPSS software. The results of repeated measures analysis showed that the effect of the cognitive-existential intervention on relationship self-change behaviors was significant and stable compared to the control group (P-value = 0. 001). Cognitive-existential intervention can significantly and consistently effect on relationship self-change behaviors in women with co-morbidity type II diabetes and obesity. The findings indicate the benefit of applying a cognitive-existential method to counseling and psychotherapy, but there are some ambiguities to be addressed in this article.

Today official divorce statistics do not fully indicate failure the spouses in their marital life because of the larger, but undiscovered, number of emotional divorces. One of the disadvantage of life is marital burnout which leads to emotional separation if left untreated. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify the effective factors on marital burnout, which is one of the factors that increasing divorce in society. This study was conducted using qualitative method with emphasis on phenomenological approach. The study population consisted of all married men and women residing in Tehran and the purposeful sampling was done among those with marital burnout who referred to counseling clinic. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews and data analysis was done based on data theory. Finally, 227 open codes, 21 concepts and 4 main categories were obtained. The main themes in this study included adverse communication characteristics, personality problems, exacerbation factors, and involvement with adverse outcomes of marital burnout that each of them also included some concepts. The findings indicated that the individual, relationship and family dimensions were involved in the formation of this phenomenon in marital relationships and the main focus of the research findings was "lack of affection and care in the relationship". Overall, the results showed that marital burnout is a process that has bad consequences in the physical, psycho-emotional, and social contexts and recommended that counselors and psychologists take more action on marital burnout and its growth factors.

Emotional divorce between couples and the lack of a proper relationship with spouse's family can lead to divorce; therefore, it is necessary to find ways to improve the emotional divorce and relationship with spouse's family. Thus, this study was done aimed to evaluation the effectiveness of emotion-focused couple therapy (EFCT) on emotional divorce and the quality of the relationship with the spouse's family. Design of this study was semi-experimental type as pretest-posttest with control group. Statistical population consisted of all couples referring to the center of counseling of the Al-Quran Central District of Karaj in 2018. The sample studied were all 12 couples (24 subjects) who were selected through targeted sampling method and were divided randomly into two groups-under training and control and members of the experimental group received emotion-focused couple therapy at center of counseling of the Al-Quran Central District in 2018. For collection data was used from Emotional Divorce Scale (EDS) and Questionnaire of the Relationships Quality with In-Law. Data Analyzing was conducted with MANCOVA and SPSS-22. The results showed that apart from quality of relationship between couples with original family (F = 0. 053, sig = 0. 820), there were a significant difference between the experimental and control group in the emotional divorce (F = 92. 56, sig = 0. 001) and other dimensions of the quality of the relationship with the spouse's family (p<0. 05). According to findings this study, emotion-focused couple therapy can be used as an effective method in improving emotional divorce and quality of relationship with in-laws in marital counseling.

Considering that violence is a global issue that affects all family members and somehow affects family functioning, it is important to focus on effective therapeutic strategies that can be applied not only to the family but also to the community Also help, focused. The purpose of this study was to determine The Effectiveness of Domestic violence– focused couple therapy on violence against women: intervention in maladjusted couples' relationship living in Ahvaz. The research community includes all couples are referred to private and public counseling centers in Ahwaz in 1397. The sample consisted of 4 couples (8) of the persons referred to these centers have been fitted with regard to violence against women questionnaire Haj Yahya), the scale of adjustment test and the confession to physical violence to enter the course of treatment. Sampling method in this research, a purposeful sampling was used. A single-case experimental design of a non-concurrent multiple baseline designs was used. The treatment protocol was applied to the two phases of the 18 sessions of intervention and the 5 stages of the baseline and the first follow-up of 45 days and the second follow-up of 3 months for all participants. The subjects were evaluated before and after the treatment, at section 4, 8, 12, 14, 18 treatment and follow up of 45 days and 3 months the questionnaires were analyzed. Data were analyzed using visual inspection, the improvement percentage formula and the reliable change index (RCI) strategies Subjects scored with total recovery (55. 54) at the end of treatment and overall improvement (56. 88) and significant level (P <0. 01). At the end of the follow-up, the results showed that: the domestic violence couple therapy has been effective in reducing violence against women.

Regarding the role of social and cultural issues in men's psychosocial arousal to polygamy life, the present study aimed to determine the relationship between variables, traditional marriage, sexual needs, free living lifestyle, attachment, religious factors, the blaming of first wife, family facilitation, authority representation, financial ability and having two residences in psychosocial arousal for men's polygamy life. The present study is a descriptive co relational study. The statistical population consisted of men polygamous living in Saravan city in the year 2019. Among them, 246 people were selected by available sampling method using Cochran's formula. Data collection tools consisted of researcher made questionnaires of Predictive factors and men’ s psychosocial arousal to polygamy life (Esmaili et al, 2019). Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation, coefficient, Friedman test, variance analysis, multiple regressions and path analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that between variables traditional marriage (P<0/01, r = 0. 236), sexual needs (P<0/01, r = 0. 291), free living lifestyle (P<0/01, r = 0. 462), attachment (P<0/01, r = 0. 228), religious factors (P<0/01, r = 0. 489), the blaming of first wife (P<0/01, r = 0. 268), family facilitation (P<0/01, r = 0. 485), authority representation (P<0/01, r = 0. 507), Financial ability (P<0/01, r = 0. 427), having two residences (P<0/01, r = 0/433) There was a significant relationship with male psychosocial arousal for polygamy life. Variables of free living lifestyle, family facilitation, financial ability and religious factors had the most influence on social psychosocial arousal. Therefore, psychologists and family counselors can identify the causes of men to polygamy life according to the findings of this study, and provide counseling to families.

Marital relationship is a multifaceted relationship that is influenced by various factors and challenges that marital infidelity is one of the most damaging of these challenges. Infidelity is a breach of commitment in a two-way relationship with a degree of emotional and physical intimacy with a non-spouse that can destroy the relationship. The purpose of this study is to investigate the lived experience of women affected by meta-marital relationships. The research was done by qualitative method and by phenomenological method and Colaizzi analysis. In-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 women that selected through purposive sampling affected by meta-marital, referred to two counseling centers in Sanandaj, Participant citations were collected, recorded, analyzed, and coded into major and subcategories. Finally, 68 primary codes, 13 sub-themes, and 3 main themes were obtained. The three main themes include increased life problems, disturbance of mind, and disturbances in communication functions. According to the findings, infidelity can have many negative consequences for women and the whole family. The reaction to infidelity is different in women and knowing the experiences of betrayed individuals and understanding their psychological and expectations states, makes it possible that by training traitorous spouses, reducing destructive encounters and by fulfilling the expectations and needs of the betrayed spouse, improving the problem and stays in the relationship.