Comparing the effectiveness of behavioral couple therapy and based on acceptance and commitment therapy on alexithymia in maladjusted couples

Alexithymia is one of the factors that causes Maladjustment and conflict between couples. The effectivenss of couples therapy and acceptance therapy on various variables in couples' lives has been confirmed, but the key question is which therapy is more effective for maladjusted couples?

To compare the effectiveness of couples therapy and acceptance therapy on the  Alexithymia of  Maladjusted couples.

This study employed a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test with control group. The statistical population of the study included all  Maladjusted couples who referred to Shiraz Family Court in 2018. Ninety persons were Election from this population using the availability sampling and were randomly placed into three groups (each including 30 persons): Experimental group 1 and 2 and the control group. The instruments used to collect data were Acceptance therapy Protocol (Khanjani Vashki et al., 2016),and Behavioral Couple Therapy (Razavi Nematollahi et al., 2013), and Alexithymia Questionnaire (Torento, 1994). The pretest was performanced  to the  Questionnaire in all three goups. Then, the participants in the two experimental groups were exposed to the treatment including the couple therapy and Accepatance-based therapy but the members of the control group did not receive any intervention. The collected data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance. 

The results showed that couples therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy had a significant effect on the couples' alexithymia (P<0/001). There was a significant difference between the two therapies in terms of their effects on  alexithymia (P<0/001). Couple therapy was found to have a more  effect on reducing difficulty in emotion recognition, while acceptance therapy had a more effect on reducing difficulty in describing emotions (p<0/05). Only couple therapy was shown to have a significant effect on reducing objective thinking (p<0/05). Therefore, couple therapy had a more effect on decreasing  alexithymia.

Couple therapy can be used to reduce alexithymia.