A comparison of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy and acceptance and commitment couple therapy on conflicting couple's marital intimacy in the city of Isfahan

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) and acceptance and commitment couple therapy on conflicting couple’s marital intimacy in the city of Isfahan. A semi-experimental design with pretest, posttest and control group was used. The statistical population included all conflicting couples referring to consultation centers in the city of Isfahan. The sampling method was in voluntary form. 90 individuals (couples) were put into three groups of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (30 individuals), acceptance and commitment couple therapy (30 individuals) and the control group (30 individuals). Both two experimental groups received 12 ninety-minute sessions of therapy once a week. The study instrument was Oliya’ et.al.’s (2009) questionnaire of couples’ intimacy. covariance analysis method was used to analyze the data via SPSS software. The results revealed that cognitive-behavioral couple therapy and acceptance and commitment couple therapy made significant changes in the marital intimacy at the posttest stage (P0.05). According to the results of the study, cognitive-behavioral couple therapy and acceptance and commitment couple therapy made significant changes in marital intimacy and there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of these two therapeutic methods. The results of this study provide experimental support for both therapies in order to increase marital intimacy.