Comparison of the Effectiveness of Emotion – Focused Therapy and Acceptance – Commitment Therapy on Self – Compassion in Women with Marital Conflict

Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of emotional focused therapy and acceptance – commitment therapy on self-compassion couples with marital conflict. Methods: Research method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and follow-up test with a control group. The statistical population of the women was referring to Tayebad Behzisti counseling centers. The statistical sample included 39 women (13 women of EFT group, 13 women of ACT group and 13 women of control group) who were selected by available sampling method and randomly placed in three groups. For the experimental groups, EFT (during 9 sessions) and ACT (during 8 sessions) were performed and the control group did not receive any intervention. The research instruments included Barati & Sanai’s Marital Conflict Questionnaire, Neff’s Self-Compassion Questionnaire. For data analysis from the analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test was used. Results: Findings showed that the educational protocol of emotion-oriented therapy had a more significant effect than acceptance-commitment therapy on increasing their self-compassion in women with marital conflict (P <0.001). Conclusions: According to the findings of the present study, emotion-oriented therapy package can be used to increase their compassion through expressing emotions, empathy with others and criticism in women with marital conflict.