The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Stress Coping Strategies in Women with Ulcerative Colitis

The main purpose of the present paper is to examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on perceived stress, stress coping strategies and illness perception in women with Ulcerative Colitis.This is an experimental study performed as pretest and post-test. The population consists of woman suffering from Ulcerative Colitis in Isfahan. The sample includes 37 Colitis selected by multi-stage random sampling and randomly assigned to experiment and control groups (control=20, experimental=17). The acceptance and commitment therapy was performed in the experimental group within two months once a week. The tools applied by this study include Perceived Stress Scale, Brief Illness Perception Scale Stress Coping Strategies Scale and Brief Illness Perception Scale.The results of this research showed that the means of coping strategies in experimental group has changed significantly in comparison with control group (p<0/05). Thus, the acceptance and commitment therapy could be used along with other methods of the treatment for the women with Ulcerative Colitis.