Comparing the effectiveness of schema therapy and emotionally focused therapy on couples' marital disaffection

Introduction: One of the most important problems in the life of couples is marital boredom. It has been proposed to use several educational and therapeutic interventions to improve marital life, among which emotion-oriented therapy and schema therapy can be mentioned. Aim: The aim of this research was to compare the effectiveness of schema therapy and emotionally focused therapy on marital disaffection. Methods: The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test-follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population of this research included all the couples who referred to counseling and psychotherapy centers in Tehran city with complaints of marital conflicts in the summer and fall of 2023, and among them 16 couples (32 people) were selected by available sampling method and randomly and by homogenizing were assigned to experimental and control groups. For the pre-test, post-test - follow-up the participants answered to Marital Disaffection Scale by Kayser (1996). After 12 sessions of schema therapy and 12 sessions of emotionally focused therapy, in the present study, in order to data analysis "variance analysis with repeated measure" statistical method and SPSS-22 software was used. Results: The results indicate the effectiveness of schema therapy and emotionally focused therapy on the marital disaffection in the intervention groups and the continuation of these effects in the follow-up phase (P<.05). Conclusion: The results showed that emotionally focused therapy and schema therapy were both equally effective on marital burnout in couples. It is suggested to include schema therapy and emotionally focused therapy in couples and family therapy training programs