Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Ph.D student, Consulting Department, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Counseling Department, Faculty of Humanities, Khomeyn Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khomeyn, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology Education and Counseling, Farhangian University, P.O.Box 889-14665, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of emotion-oriented schema therapy and combined behavioral therapy on sexual self-esteem, quality of marital relationship, communication patterns and emotional narcissism in conflicting couples referred to counseling centers in Qom. The family is the main core of every society and the center of maintaining people's health and mental health, and it is not the only place to meet the emotional, material, developmental and spiritual needs of its members, but the origin of human emotions and the center of the most intimate relationships and interactions. It is also interpersonal. The concept of family and the value of this social institution is considered as the basic work for every government and society, and every society, according to its values, first goes to the family to help its society from within. For this reason, the family is one of the first institutions that must change in society. Therefore, the foundation of the family is formed based on the marriage contract between the husband and wife so that they can experience a peaceful and happy life together, but unfortunately, abundant evidence indicates that couples in today's society Establishing and maintaining intimate and friendly relationships have severe and difficult problems. One of the common problems in couples' relationships that has attracted the attention of therapists is couples' conflicts. Conflict in relationships occurs when a person's behavior does not match the other person's expectations. All over the world, there is an increasing concern about increasing the level of marital conflict and its serious effect on the functioning and stability of the family.

Method
Semi-experimental research method with pretest design - Post-test with two experimental groups and a control group and the statistical population, including all women with marital conflicts referred to counseling centers in Qom province in 2021. From this population, 21 couples were selected by sampling method and randomly divided into three groups: emotion-oriented schema therapy (7 couples), integrated behavior (7 couples) and control (7 couples). Both experimental groups received ten 60-minute training sessions. Subjects were examined before the intervention, at the end of the intervention, and at the follow-up stage for three months using the Toronto Alexithymia Questionnaire (1986), Schwartz (1996) Sexual Self-Esteem Questionnaire, the quality of subsequent marital relationships, et al. (1995), and Christ's age and relationship patterns. Salavi (1984) Assessing Assistance. The data were analyzed with the help of SPSS software and multivariate covariance analysis method.

Results
The findings showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in sexual self-esteem, marital relationship quality, constructive communication patterns, and emotional ataxia in the post-test phase. The results showed that emotional schema therapy increased the results of three variables: self-esteem, quality of marital relationship, and mutual constructive communication, and decreased the three variables of withdrawal expectation, mutual communication, and emotional dyslexia. Emotional-centered couple therapy is effective on emotional apathy, relationship quality, sexual self-esteem, and communication patterns among conflicting couples. In explaining the above results, it can be said: the goal of couple therapy based on schema-emotional therapy is to change emotional patterns that are linked to communication problems.

Discussion
Therefore, according to the research, it can be concluded that emotion-oriented schema therapy can increase sexual self-esteem, the quality of relationships and communication patterns, and reduce Alexithymia. In the model of emotional schemas, people differ from each other in terms of the interpretation and evaluations they make of their emotional experience, and they may try to deal with their emotions with different strategies such as experiential avoidance, ineffective cognitive strategies, social support, or other strategies. to deal with, which causes mental disorders and on the one hand, the formation of high conflicts between couples, but during the process of treatment with various techniques, including cognitive reconstruction, couples with problems are changed or adjusted, and this model is based on this principle. It is established that emotional disorders are caused by beliefs, interpretations and strategies used to deal with emotions. Therefore, interventions related to emotional schemas can be effective on marital satisfaction and marital problems, and subsequently reduce conflicts in couples.

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