The Comparing Effectiveness of Narrative Exposure Therapy and Emotion- Focused Couple Therapy on Loneliness and Marital Intimacy among Women Affected Infidelity

Marital infidelity is a source of intense distress for personal and interpersonal couples life and destroyer their relationships. The purpose of this study was to effectiveness of narrative exposure therapy and emotion- focused couple therapy on loneliness and marital intimacy among women affected by marital infidelity.

This semi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group and follow-up 2 month. In this study the statistical population of all women affected by marital infidelity of Shahriar city in year 1400. In the first stage, using convenience sampling method, 36 women affected by marital infidelity were selected and then randomly divided into three groups (each group has 12 people). The experimental groups underwent narrative exposure therapy, emotion- focused couple therapy, but the control group remained in the waiting list. To collect data loneliness scale-version 3 of Russell and marital intimacy scale of Walker and Thompson. Data analysis was performed using analysis of variance with repeated measures with SPSS-24.

The results of the study showed that of narrative exposure therapy and emotion-focused couple therapy in post-test and follow up had a significant effect on loneliness and marital intimacy (P<0.05). Also, narrative exposure therapy had stronger effects in improvement of loneliness and marital intimacy than emotion- focused couple therapy.

Based on the results this study revealed narrative exposure therapy and emotion- focused couple therapy, since the intervention is based on the expression and retelling of the details of the traumatic event in a safe therapeutic environment, can be suitable treatment programs to reduce loneliness and increase marital intimacy in among women affected by marital infidelity