The Effectiveness of “Forgiveness-Based Group Counseling” on Post-divorce Women's Adjustment

Introduction: Divorce can put people›s mental health at risk and adjustment can help. The aim of study was to determine the effectiveness of «Forgiveness-Based Group Counseling» on post-divorce women›s adjustment. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental and its design was pretest-posttest with control group. The study population was all divorced women referring to crisis intervention center of welfare center of Torbat Heydariyeh city in 2016. The sample consisted of 30 individuals who were selected through the available sampling method from eligible applicants to participate in a forgiveness-based group counseling and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 in each group). The research instrument was the “Fisher›s Divorce Adjustment Scale”. Content validity of the questionnaire and reliability were assessed by Cronbach›s alpha. The intervention group received «Forgiveness-Based Group Counseling» in 6 sessions of 90 minutes. Data were analyzed using SPSS. 22. Results: «Forgiveness-Based Group Counseling» has a significant effect on increasing self-worth, abandonment, reducing anger, passing through grief, social intimacy, and social self-worth, and overall post-divorce adjustment (p <0.05). Conclusions: «Forgiveness-Based Group Counseling» increases women›s adaptation after divorce. Therefore, it is recommended to use this method to increase adjustment and reduce post-divorce problems.