Comparing the Effectiveness of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy on Forgiveness and Marital Intimacy of Women Affected by Infidelity in Mashhad

The experience of infidelity is very painful and leads to serious negative consequence among couples. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT) and cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBT) on forgiveness and marital intimacy of women affected by infidelity.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-posttest design. The statistical population included all the infidelity-affected women referred to Andishe and Tafakor counseling center in the first quarter of 2020 in Mashhad city. The sample size was determined by Cochran formula as 15 participants for each group. From this statistical population, 45 people were selected by purposive method based on inclusion criteria and were randomly replaced in three groups of CBT (N=15), EFT (N=15), and the control group (N=15. They did not receive any intervention. All participants were assessed before, after, and two months after the intervention with the marital forgiveness and Walker and Thompson's (1983) and marital intimacy scale (MIS). The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS-20 by statistical methods of the repeated measure analysis of variance.

The mean age of participants was 33.11 ±5.03, and their marriage duration was 6.23±2.89.  The results demonstrated forgiveness and marital intimacy were significantly increased in CBT and EFT groups compared to the control group (P <0.001). EFT showed higher effectiveness than CBT in enhancement of forgiveness and intimacy (P <0.05).

According to the findings, CBT and EFT indicated efficacy in improvement of intimacy and forgiveness between couples. By comparing interventions, EFT showed higher effectiveness. Therefore, it is suggested to use emotion-focused techniques to improve the relationship of couple. In addition, considering the effectiveness of both treatments, an integrated approach can be used in future studies.