The Effectiveness of Behavioral-integrated couple therapy and couple therapy by Guttman method on the Quality of Marital Relationships and Marital Intimacy

The purpose of this research was the effectiveness of combined behavioral couple therapy and Gutman couple therapy on the quality of marital relationships and marital intimacy of conflicted couples. In this research, a single-case experimental design of the asynchronous multiple baseline type was used. The statistical population included couples who referred to the Shamim counseling center in 2019. The sample consisted of 6 couples who were selected by non-random sampling method and according to the results of marital relationship quality questionnaire (Fletcher et al., 2000), they were classified as conflicting couples and randomly divided into two alternative groups. became The participants answered questionnaires of marital intimacy (Elson, Shafer, 1981) and quality of marital relationship in pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. which was implemented using Gutman's (Gutman, 2017) and integrated behavioral (Pour Sardar, 2018) protocols in two to four stages of baseline, 14 and 16-session intervention and two-month follow-up. The data were analyzed by visual drawing method, stable change index and recovery percentage. Findings It showed that the effectiveness of the Gutman method compared to the combined behavioral method in terms of the size of change, generality and stability, comprehensiveness and stability, and the level of recovery of conflicting couples in the Gutman and combined behavioral group The stages after treatment and follow-up in quality variables were marital relationship (49/53),(43/68),maritalintimacy (39/65),(38/56).