The effectiveness of group existencetherapy on self-compassion and resilience of mothers with children with intellectual disability

The birth of a child with intellectual disability affectson mothers and place them under multiple stress. The purpose of the research was to examine the effectiveness of group existencetherapy on self-compassion and resilience mothers of childrenintellectual disability. This semi-experimental study was conducted using pre-test and post-test with control group the study universe included all mothers with children with intellectual disability who were referred to rehabilitating center in Ardabil city in the year of2017, 30 mothers were selected through the target sampling method and randomly were availability into two equal experimental and control groups. Experimental group experienced 8 weeks of Existence therapy, while control group were just followed. Self-compassion Questionnaire (Raes, Pommier, Neff & Van Gucht, 2013) and Resilience Questionnaire (connor& Davidson, 2003) were used in pre-test, post-test and follow up as the study instrument. Data were analyzed by descriptive indices and analysis of covariance. The result of comparing post-test of scores in two group showed that there were significant difference in self-compassion and resilience scores intervention group and the control group (p<0.01). Thus, can be said that of existential group psychotherapy increased self-compassion and resilience scores in mothers of children with intellectual disability.