Effectiveness of Treatment based on Wish-Actualization Doctrine and its Comparison with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Couples with Marital Problems Due to Differences of Beliefs and Religious Conflicts

Abstract:

Undoubtedly, the basis of a healthy society is healthy families and solving marital problems helps the development of peace in the society remarkably. Today, many problems of those couples seeking help from therapists are due to differences of beliefs and religious cognitive conflicts. On the other hand, religious issues and their application in families are welcomed by therapists. However, there is a need for a theory that can teach the therapists to interpret and respond to religious differences of the couples. The purpose of the present research is to use a treatment protocol based on ultra-religious wish actualization view and compare its results with cognitive-behavioral view. Effectiveness of the view is confirmed in exploratory qualitative studies. In a clinical trial in Tehran, 30 couples confirmed through clinical interviews to have problems due to beliefs were chosen by convenience sampling and classified randomly into three equal groups. The first group received 8 sessions of classical cognitive-behavioral therapy, the second group received 8 sessions of treatment based on wish actualization and the third group did not receive any intervention. Inventory of Enrich marital satisfaction and general health questionnaire were completed at the beginning and end of intervention and all groups were measured again in the follow up study one month later. The scores of the test were analyzed using ANCOVA. Findings show that differences between scores of three groups were significant (P<0.01). Post hoc test showed that although both groups being treated (cognitive-behavioral and wish actualization treatments) showed significant improvement compared to the control group (P<0.01), significant differences were not observed between both groups with different treatments (p>0.05). However, in a one-month follow up, wish actualization doctrine had more stable results than classical cognitive-behavioral therapy significantly. The results of the study showed that treatment based on wish actualization not only has an effect similar to classical cognitive-behavioral treatment, but it is also more stable in long term and couples treated by this technique reported more marital satisfaction after one month.