A review and analysis on the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on marital exhaustion on the verge of divorce

Emotional divorce often precedes a legal divorce. It is a psychological mechanism some spouses use toseparate their emotions from the marriage when they feel the relationship has become a threat to theirwell-being. Emotional divorce is a type of separation in which the husband and wife live together underthe same roof, but there is no affection between them. In emotional divorce, the husband and wifewithhold their feelings from each other and turn away They shine because their trust in each other andtheir attraction to each other has decreased. Emotional Divorce (ED) is associated with decreased levelsof Emotion Regulation (ER), adaptation, and mental health; subsequently, all such pressures raise stressin various dimensions among the affected individuals. Emotional Schema Therapy (EST), as a sociocognitivemodel of ER, may improve marital intimacy and reduce couples’ psychological distress. Thepresent study aimed to investigate the effects of EST and differentiation training on the odds of EDamong women. This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group design.The study population comprised all women referring to the Education Counseling Center, District ۶ ofTehran Municipality in Tehran City, Iran, in ۲۰۱۸. In total, ۴۵ women were recruited by conveniencesampling method and were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and a control group(n=۱۵/group). The research questionnaire was the Emotional Divorce Scale (EDS). The firstexperimental group underwent eight ۹۰-minute weekly sessions of SET and the second experimentalgroup received eight ۹۰-minute weekly sessions of differentiation training; however, the controlsreceived no intervention. Data analysis was performed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) inSPSS. The significance level was considered as P=۰.۰۵. The mean values of ED significantly decreasedin both experimental groups, compared to the control group (P<۰.۰۵). A significant difference was alsoobserved between the effects of the two interventions on decreasing the ED rate; thus, the effectivenessof EST was greater than that of differentiation training in this respect (P<۰.۰۵). EST and differentiationtraining reduced ED among the study participants. These approaches can be adopted as an effectiveintervention to solve the couples’ problems and improve their marital relationship to reduce the odds ofemotional divorce.

Keywords:

Cognitive behavior therapies , Emotions , Divorce , Women