Comparing The Effectiveness of Gottman's Couple Therapy and Emotion-Focused Therapy on Couples' Marital Intimacy

Background: A person's satisfaction with marital life is considered as his or her satisfaction with the family and family satisfaction means life satisfaction and consequently facilitates the growth and spiritual progress of the society.Objective: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Gottman's model and emotion-focused therapy on couples' marital intimacy.Method: The method of the study was semi-experimental research with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with the control group. The statistical population of this study was all couples referred to clinics west of Tehran in ۲۰۲۰ that by convenience sampling method, ۲۴ couples were selected and randomly divided into two groups of intervention by Gottman couple therapy and emotional therapy and a control group (۸ couples in each group). The experimental group underwent ۱۰ sessions of ۹۰ minutes under Gottman's couple therapy and emotion-focused therapy, and the control group stayed on the waiting list. Data were collected based on the Intimacy Needs Questionnaire and repeatedly measured variance analysis was used using SPSS software.Results: The results showed that Gottman's model method and emotion-focused therapy had an effect on couples' marital intimacy and there was no significant difference between the two treatments in terms of effectiveness (p <۰.۰۱). Conclusion: Therefore, based on the findings of this study, it can be said that Gottman's model method and emotion-focused therapy based on couples' marital intimacy is an effective model for increasing couples' marital intimacy and can be used as one of the therapeutic or educational methods in couple therapy programs.

Keywords:

Emotion-focused therapy , couples therapy , Spouses , emotions