The Perspective of Counselors and Psychotherapists about the Role of Religiosity in Couple's Sexual Satisfaction and Marital Intimacy: A Qualitative Study

The quality of sexual relationship and marital intimacy are important topics of post-marriage experience. Similarly, religiosity is commonly considered as an influential framework for life. Past research has not been able to accurately discover or illustrate the opinions of experts in the area of couples counseling about the relationship between these dimensions. Therefore, this research was conducted to examine the marriage and family experts’ points of view about the role of religiosity in sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy of couples.

Qualitative approach of phenomenological type was used. For this, ten individuals who were counselors or psychologist with active working experience with couples were interviewed according to qualitative protocols. Data collected from interviews were then analyzed using features available in Microsoft Word software.

In the open-coding, 147 initial codes were produced, while the axial-coding based on thematic similarities yielded 24 categorical codes. One of the main questions asked of the participants was “what role can religiosity play in the quality of couple’s relationship?” Overall, according to the analysis of the responses obtained, religiosity plays a positive role in sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy of couples. However, some of the participants mentioned a few points as reservations to be considered which are covered in the current article.

Counselors’ and psychotherapists’ perceptions about role and relation between variables of religiosity, sexual satisfaction, and marital intimacy are important. Of the main findings of the present study was interviewees’ describing the prerequisite or complementary context for capitalizing on positive effects of religiosity in sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy. situation was that the interviewees as it is a prerequisite for receiving a positive impact or supplement and religiosity on the significant sex and marital intimacy.