Comparison of the Effectiveness of Group Counseling by Gestalt Therapy and Positive Psychology Approach on Psychological Well-Being in Woman with Lung Cancer

According to medical literature, lung cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality among women, which is more prevalent in Iran and leads to women’s function decline in the family. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of group counseling by Gestalt Therapy and Positive Psychology approach on psychological well-being in woman with lung cancer and comparing their results with each other.

The present study is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design. The statistical population was selected using random and convenience sampling from the Oncology ward of Valiasr Hospital in Qom city. In this research, the samples were divided into two groups of experimental and control, which 10 subjects were considered for each of the intervention and control groups, so that, in total, the sample size was calculated to be 30 subjects. According to the principles of psychotherapy, the protocols of Positive Psychology and Gestalt Therapy were implemented and a psychological well-being questionnaire was used to assess the effect of these two approaches. Data were analyzed using multivariate covariance analysis model.

The mean age of the samples was 41.50±12.2 years. There was also a difference between the effectiveness of group counseling with Gestalt therapy and positive psychology on psychological well-being in women with lung cancer (p=0.001.( Overall, by controlling the pre-test effect, there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of the "psychological well-being" variable. Among the 6 variables, significant difference was observed between the groups only in 4 variables of self-acceptance (p=0.004), positive relationship with others (p=0.002), purposeful living (p=0.0021), and personal growth (p= 0.001).

The results of this study indicated that there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of "psychological well-being" by controlling for the pre-test effect. Moreover, positive psychotherapy has a high and significant effectiveness and Gestalt therapy has low and insignificant effectiveness. Therefore, the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy is higher than Gestalt therapy.