The Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy on Reduction of the Negative Emotional Schemas, Alexithymia and Signs of Patients with somatic Symptoms

Somatic symptoms make a significant part of admittances to health centers. Since clinical observations have linked these symptoms with emotions, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on decreasing negative emotional schemas, Alexithymia And Signs of Patients with somatic Symptoms.

The present study was a type of semi-experimental research with pre-test post-test design with control group. The population of this study was all female patients with somatic symptoms of Isfahan province and sample included 30 referents from counseling centers of Isfahan and Khomeini shahr with somatic symptoms that were selected based on Judgment sampling and with psychiatrist's and psychologist's discriminant and divided into two experimental (15) and control (15) groups. The experimental group received 12 sessions of emotional schema therapy approach. The Leahy Emotional Schematic Scale (LESS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS_20), and the B-Score Somatic Symptom Inventory (SSD-12) were used for participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS 24.

After the implementation of emotional schema therapy, there was a significant difference in the negative emotional schemas (F: 8. 24, P<0. 008), alexithymia (F: 250. 89, P<0. 001) and somatic symptoms (F: 374. 59, P<0. 001) in the experimental group compared to the control group and the mean scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group.

The results of this study showed The Emotional Schema Therapy Model, based on the existence of a relationship between negative emotional schemas and alexithymia with somatic symptoms, by modifying the underlying emotional processes and improving the maladaptive strategies of individuals toward emotions, reduced the negative emotional schema and alexithymia and somatic Symptoms. Keywords: Emotional Schema Therapy, Negative Emotional Schemas, Alexithymia, somatic Symptoms.