A Study On the Effectiveness of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and Integrated Systemic Couple Therapy on reducing Intimacy Anxiety

This study examined the effect-tiveness of emotionally focused co-uple therapy (EFT) and integrated sys-temic couple therapy (IST) on resol-ving intimacy anxiety. For this purp-ose, 30 couples were randomly selec-ted and based on their pretests were assigned into two experimental and one control groups. Research instru-ments were Fear of Intimacy Scale (FIS) (Descutner & Thelen), and The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) (Spa-nier, 1976).A Nine-session of EFT was conducted for one experiment group and eight sessions of IST for the other. The control group did not receive any treatment. These three groups compl-eted post test at the end of the experiment, and follow-up test 3 mon-ths later. Results indicated that EFT and IST significantly decreased intim-acy anxiety in couples, and the treatm-ent effect was consistent after 3 mon-ths follow-up.