The Effectiveness of acceptance and Commitment Therapy on internalized Shame and Sexual self-esteem of Women with Breast Cancer after Mastectomy Surgery

Mastectomy surgery is basic foundation of treatment in patients with breast cancer that could cause damage to matrimony. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was the Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on internalized shame and Sexual self-esteem of women with breast cancer after mastectomy surgery.

This quasi-experimental study was a pretest-posttest with control group. The research population was women residing in Behshahr city with breast cancer after mastectomy surgery that had been treating in specialized clinics in Behshahr and Sari cities. 30 women under consideration entry and exit criteria to study randomly assigned into two groups of 15people experimental and control with convenience Method. The experimental group was exposed to therapy based on acceptance and commitment in ten sessions of 90 minutes but control group did not receive treatment. Standard Cook's Internalized Shame Inventory and Schwarz sexual self- esteem were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by using SPSS21 software and multivariate covariance analysis.

The results of multivariate covariance analysis showed that therapy on acceptance and commitment has had positive impact on some components of internalized shame including shyness and self-esteem also the intervention has had positive impact on some components of sexual self-esteem like experience and skill , attractiveness, control , moral judgment and adaptiveness.

therapy based on acceptance and commitment has caused to increase sexual self-esteem and reduce internalized shame. The use of the intervention recommended improving mental health in women with breast cancer after mastectomy surgery