The effectiveness of brief empathic psychodynamic psychotherapy and anxiety regulating psychodynamic psychotherapy on self concept and emotional expression of university students with symptoms of adult separation anxiety disorder

Due to high prevalence and pathological characteristics of anxiety disorders especially separation anxiety disorder; few researches have been done on effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy in treatments of this disorder. Therefore, according to the position of this treatment in treating of psychological disorders, the aim of the current research was to examine the effectiveness of brief empathic psychodynamic psychotherapy and anxiety regulating psychotherapy on self concept and emotional expression of students with symptoms of adult separation anxiety disorders.
Research design was semi experimental with pre-post test and control group. The study population included all students of Mohaghegh Ardabilili University and Islamic Azad University in 2016-1017 academic years. Samples include 30 students with symptoms of adult separation anxiety disorders which were selected among students via structured clinical interview and global assessment of function and were assigned randomly into three groups (two experimental groups and one control group). Research instruments included: Adult separation anxiety questionnaire, global assessment of function scale, emotional expression, Beck self-concept questionnaire and clinical structured interview for adult separation anxiety disorder. Analysis of data was performed using ANOVA with repeated measure via SPSS software.
The results of the present research showed that brief empathic psychodynamic therapy has therapeutic effects on self concept and anxiety regulating dynamic psychotherapy has significant impact on both self concept and emotional expression in post test and follow up phase (P The results of the present research showed that participants under brief empathic psychodynamic therapy had significant increase in self-concept scores but the effectiveness was not significant on emotional expression and individuals who received anxiety regulating dynamic psychotherapy had significant increase in emotional expression and self-concept scores. Therefore the results indicate that short term dynamic psychotherapies are effective interventions in promoting psychological conditions in adult separation anxiety disorders.