Comparing Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) and Combining ACT & EFT in the Spiritual Well-being of Couples Referring to Counseling Centers in Sari: An Experimental Study

Finding effective therapeutic approaches to improving the spirituality of individuals, especially couples, is very helpful in reconciling their differences, enhancing their intimacy and preventing family problems. The present study attempts to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), emotion-focused therapy (EFT) and combined therapy in the spiritual beliefs of couples referring to counseling centers.

The study was quasi-experimental and used a pre-test, post-test control group design. The participants were selected from the families referring to counseling centers in Sari using available sampling method. People with an IQ of higher than 85 and no addiction were included in the study. They responded to Inclusive Spirituality Index (ISI), and 56 couples with scores lower than the average were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. Group 1 participated in ten 90-minute sessions of ACT, Group 2 in six 90-minute sessions of EFT and Group 3 in Sixteen 90-minute sessions of combined therapy and the control group received no treatment. The participations were finally retested using ISI A delayed posttest was also administered after one month. Considering normal distribution of the data, the significance of the results was tested by covariance analysis and Mauchly's Sphericity Test. In this study, all the ethical considerations have been observed and no conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The three forms of treatment significantly increased spiritual well-being of the spouses asking for divorce, but no significant difference was observed among the three groups. The effects were found to persist after one month.

Based on the findings, all three methods of intervention can promote the spiritual well-being of the couples, spirituality can be changed, and spiritual well-being increases through education and therapy. Accordingly, the originality of ACT and EFT lies in increasing the spiritual well-being of couples demanding divorce and reducing divorce rates.