Comparison of the effectiveness of Emotion-focused Therapy and Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on marital adjustment of married women with experience of complex childhood trauma

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of ISTDP and EFT therapies on marital adjustment of married women with experience of complex childhood trauma. The study population consisted of married women with a history of complex childhood trauma and distressing marital relationships in Shahrekord in 1400. sampling was done by call and voluntarily. After reviewing the inclusion criteria, finally, six people were selected and randomly assigned to ISTDP and EFT treatments. After implementation, the approaches were compared. Research data were analyzed by a single case method. The results of visual analysis between the intervention and baseline positions including PND, mean and mean changes, relative and absolute level changes, showed the effectiveness of both treatments on marital adjustment. Mean and average changes for ISTDP and EFT therapies indicated the effectiveness of both approaches on increasing marital adjustment in the middle and end of treatment sessions. Relative level changes for both treatments also indicated an increase in marital adjustment in the early stages of treatment. Results for absolute changes for ISTDP and EFT therapies indicated that both treatments were able to lead to immediate changes in marital adjustment scores. The percentage of overlapping for both treatments indicated the high effectiveness of these two treatments for marital adjustment. Considering the values obtained from the average changes, mean, level changes, and percentage index of overlapping data, the results show that EFT treatment was more effective than ISTDP treatment in increasing marital adjustment.

Keywords

• emotion-focused therapy
• intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy
• marital adjustment
• complex childhood trauma