The Effectiveness of Group Treatment of “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)” on Marital Intimacy of Female Teachers

Among the critical jobs that women are engaged in is a teacher and a variable that can be affected by their employment is marital intimacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of group therapy "acceptance and commitment therapy" on marital intimacy of female teachers. This quasi-experimental study was a pretest-posttest-follow-up with control group. The statistical population of the study was all married and employed female teachers in Abhar city in the academic year of 2017-2018. 30 of them were selected by random sampling method and randomly assigned to two equal groups. The intervention group trained in eight 90-minute sessions with the "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" method. Both groups completed the "Intimacy Needs Survey" as a pretest, post-test, and follow-up. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by the counselors and the reliability of the questionnaire was measured using Cronbach's alpha. Data was analyzed using SPSS. 24. In the post-test and follow up stages, there was a significant correlation between  the  experimental group and the control group in emotional intimacy (F = 12.20, P = 0.01), psychological intimacy (F = 11.88, P < 0.01), intellectual intimacy (F = 16.199, P < 0.01), sexual intimacy (F = 15.47, P = 0.01), physical intimacy (F = 24.44, P < 0.01), spiritual intimacy (F = 17.4, P < 0.01), aesthetic intimacy (F = 17.76, P < 0.01), social-recreational intimacy (F = 16.31, P < 0.01), temporal intimacy (F = 15.92, P < 0.01). In other words, "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)” increased marital intimacy among female teachers (P < 0.01) and this increase was stable over time. Teaching “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” (ACT) can increase marital intimacy in married female teachers. Therefore, counselors and therapists can use this method to increase marital satisfaction.