Effectiveness of Cognitive and Behavioral Hypnotherapy on the Self-Esteem and Emotion-Seeking of the Women with Depression Who Refer to Consultation Centers

Depression affects individuals' psychological and emotional processes. according to thisThe present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of cognitive and behavioral hypnotherapy on the self-esteem and emotion-seeking of the women with depression who refer to consultation centers.

The statistical population of the present study was all women suffering from depression who referred to consultation centers in zone 1 in the city of Tehran from March to May 2019. The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and control group design. The samples in the present study included 30 women with depression disorder who were selected through convenient sampling method and randomly replaced into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received eight ninety-minute sessions of therapeutic interventions related to cognitive and behavioral hypnotherapy during two months once a week. The applied instruments included depression questionnaire (Beck et.al, 1996), emotion-seeking questionnaire (Zuckerman, Eysenck & Eysenck, 1978) and self-esteem questionnaire (Coopersmith, 1967). After collecting questionnaires and extracting raw data, the data analysis was conducted via SPSS23 through descriptive statistics and ANCOVA methods.

The results showed that cognitive and behavioral therapy significantly affects self-esteem and emotion-seeking of the women suffering from depression who referred to consultation centers (p<0.001) in a way that this therapy was able to lead to the improvement of self-esteem and decrease of emotion-seeking in the women suffering from depression.

the findings of the present study showed that the cognitive and behavioral hypnotherapy through employing techniques such as Induction of relaxation techniques, presentation of positive thoughts, spread of awareness and positive therapeutic beliefs can be used as an efficient treatment to improvement of self-esteem and decrease of emotion-seeking in the women suffering from depression.