Investigating the Effectiveness of Integrative- Behavioral and Acceptance and Commitment Couple Therapies on Improving Marital Intimacy and Reducing Irrational Beliefs of Couples

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of two integrative-behavioral as well as acceptance and commitment couple therapies on improving marital intimacy and reducing the irrational beliefs of the couples. The current study was applied in terms of purpose and was a quasi-experimental study having pre-test and post-test as well as a control group in terms of research methodology.  Using this method, the experimental group was under short-term dynamic psychotherapy. The statistical population of the current research included refereed couples to the counseling center of Tehran. Having utilized purposeful sampling, those couples who had gained lower scores based on the intimacy and irrational beliefs` questionnaires and had met the inclusion criteria of the study (based on the interview and testing), were selected from among refereed couples. The number of samples was 24 couples that were divided into three groups after selecting and matching regarding their age, education, marriage duration, number of children and economic conditions, and integrative-behavioral, as well as acceptance and commitment couple therapies, were administered on them. Two questionnaires of marital intimacy and irrational beliefs were distributed and collected in two forms of pre-test and post-test. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between the performance of two experimental and control groups regarding their irrational beliefs and marital intimacy in the post-test phase, which was applied after two months of follow-up sessions. Since irrational beliefs made the marital relations of the couples stressful and inefficient, integrative behavioral interventions increased satisfaction and reduced tension through improving and increasing interactions between couples (p<0.05). Therefore, it is suggested that a couple of therapists use this kind of interventional method as an effective therapeutic method (p<0.05).