The Efficacy of Hypnotherapy Based on Ego Strengthening on Treatment of Major Depression in Female‐Headed Households

Female-headed households, due to many difficulties and diverse roles, are one of the vulnerable groups in society and at risk for mental disorders, such as depression. Thus, they require more support, including psychological treatment and empowering programs. Hypnotherapy based on strengthening the ego can be a useful strategy for empowerment and also as a way to reduce the symptoms of depression. So, this research is an experimental study to determine the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in treating depression based on ego strengthening of female-headed households. Participants in this study were 30 women who were covered by the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee. They were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The strength of ego and depression were measured by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2) and Psychological Ego Strengths Scale. The results of Multivariate ANOVA with Repeated Measures showed that there are significants difference between the pretest, posttest and flow up in experimental group, compared to control group, in terms of dependent variables (p