Journal of Counseling Research

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The purpose of the present study was carried out in order to investigation of effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on acceptance and growth after break up in female students with break-up experience in girl students who have already experienced break up at Ahwaz city. The population is consisted of the girl students studying in the university, who experienced an emotional break up at least within 3 months to a year ago. The samples were selected as targeted sampling. The sample includes three girl students who got a score higher than 20 on Love Trauma Syndrome Inventory.

In this research, a non-congruent  experimental single case multiple baseline was used and the subjects answered the Admission and Action Questionnaire and Post-traumatic Development and Growth Questionnaire before, during and   end of  treatment and one month after the last treatment. The data was analyzed as visual, improvement percentage, and Reliable Change Index (RCI). The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy increase acceptance and growth after break up in female students with break-up experience. therapy.

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The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of group therapy based on Acceptance and Commitment  with integrating Acceptance and Commitment therapy and compassion Focus Therapy on the psychological well-being of divorced women.The research method  was quasi-experimental based on a pre-test, post-test design and follow-up with control group. The statistical population were divorced women who were referred to Ameneh Family Counselling Center in Tehran, during of 2016-2017 years. The sample included 32 divorced women who were selected by available and purposive sampling method in three group (2 experimental groups and 1 control group) including12 persons in each group. The first experimental group was received 10 sessions of ACT techniques and second experimental group was received 10 sessions of CFACT techniques (weekly 120 minutes’ sessions), but the control group did not receive any intervention. The research instrument was Reyf’s Psychological well-being Scale (RSPWB). Data were analyzed by using analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results indicated that both Acceptance and Commitment therapy and integration  of ACT with CFT on psychological well-being of divorced women were significantly effective. Also efficacy of CFACT on increasing of psychological well-being divorced women was better than ACT. Regarding the findings, the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy And integration of ACT with CFT  is an effective treatment for  promoting of psychological well-being of divorced women.
Keywords: Acceptance and commitment therapy, Compassion focus therapy, Psychological well-being, Divorced women

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Aim: The goal for this research was to assess the effectiveness of the two approaches in couples therapy, one being based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and the other being Imago therapy (IRT), on couple’s sexual intimacy. Methods: Quasi-experimental method with pre and post-test and control group were used. Total of 45 couples from among those who used counseling centers in city of Kermanshah during the year 2019 participated voluntarily in this research. They were randomly assigned to three 15-couple groups of ACT, Imago Therapy, and control. Eight 90-minute sessions were conducted using ACT with one group and Imago Therapy with another group. Data was collected using sexual intimacy questionnaire that was adapted from Enrich scale. Findings: Covariance analysis showed (p>0.05) couples therapy based on ACT and Imago Therapy techniques were effective in improving sexual intimacy in couples. These findings showed utilizing techniques in ACT-based couples therapy, cause psychological acceptance about mental experiences and decrease ineffective controlling behaviors.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of acceptance, commitment and reality therapy based on self-care behaviors in female patients with breast cancer.
Methods: The design of the present study was a quasi-experimental group of three groups of pre-test-post-test with control group and with follow-up. The present study population was female patients with breast cancer aged 25 to 45 years who referred to the oncology ward of Imam Hossein Hospital in Tehran in the second half of 1398. In this study, three experimental groups were used, the number of people in each group was 20. The method was as follows: the first experimental group, the treatment protocol based on acceptance and commitment, and the second experimental group, the reality therapy intervention, were performed in eight sessions of 90 minutes. But the control group did not receive any intervention. Mixed analysis of variance was used to analyze the data.
 Results: Finally, in examining the effectiveness of acceptance, commitment and reality therapy approaches, it was found that there is a difference between the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and reality therapy on self-care behaviors in female patients with breast cancer. In other words, reality therapy has a greater effect on increasing self-care behaviors in female patients with breast cancer than acceptance and commitment therapy.
Conclusion: Considering the effect of reality therapy approach on increasing self-care behaviors in female patients with breast cancer, the need for more attention and application of this approach and thus increasing the likelihood of self-care in patients is felt more than before.

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 Aim: The aim of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Anxiety and Self-efficacy of children among children with anxiety. Methods: The statistical population consisted of all children diagnose with anxiety in Ahvaz. The research sample consisted of 3 children that were selected according to the results of the Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) , using purposeful sampling method. In this research, a single-case experimental design, type of non-concurrent multiple baseline designs was used. To evaluate the anxiety, Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) and self-Efficacy - Children's Self-Efficacy Scale were used. The data was collected in three phases of baseline, during intervention, and one month follow-up. Findings: The findings indicate that the subjects in the treatment phase experienced improvement in anxiety (30/96) and self-efficacy (28/13), and in the follow-up in regards to anxiety (38/44) and self-efficacy (32/25). The change index was indicative of meaningful changes (z=1/95 α=0.05). Conclusion: Therefore, the research findings illustrated that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy reduces anxiety and increases children's self-efficacy by increasing psychological flexibility and reducing dysfunctional reactions.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Bowenian family therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on the difficulty in regulating the emotion of mothers with one child. Methods: This was a descriptive quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with two experimental groups and a control group. The statistical population of the study included all mothers with only one child of preschool age in Kermanshah kindergartens in 2019. A total of 45 people were selected through convenience sampling and 15 people were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. Data were collected in the pretest-posttest stages with a scale of difficulty in emotion regulation (Grotz and Roemer, 2004). After pre-testing, members of the two experimental groups participated separately in eight 1.5-hour weekly sessions of Bowenian family therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy. Analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc test were used to analyze the data. Results: The results of analysis of covariance showed that the effect of Bowenian family therapy and the effect of acceptance and commitment based therapy on difficulty in emotion regulation in individuals is significant (P<0.05). Also, differences in the two treatment groups for the dimensions of emotional rejection, difficulty in performing behavior, difficulty in controlling impulse, lack of emotional awareness, limited access, and lack of clarity, respectively, the amount of F statistic; 4.771, 4.461, 3.524, 3.399 and 5.720 with significant levels were 0.026, 0.005, 0.011, 0.001, 0.003 and 0.009, respectively. The results of Bowenian test showed that due to the size of the differences, the effectiveness of acceptance-based and commitment-based therapy in combining with other interventions on the difficulty of emotion regulation and its related components was higher (P <0.05). Conclusion: Psychologists, when faced with problems of mother-child interaction, evaluate the mother in terms of the level of cognitive emotion regulation and other psychological variables affecting emotion regulation and use effective treatment methods if there is a problem.