A Study on the Effectiveness of Emotional Focused Couple Therapy on Intimacy of Couples

In this study, the effectiveness of Emotional Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) on intimacy of couples was investigated. The Quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and control group was used. Accordingly, 14 couples that had marital conflicts were chosen from two counselling centre of the Shiraz city by screening. Couples were randomly assigned in two groups, including an experimental (7 couples) and a control (7 couples) groups. All of the participants completed Intimacy Needs Questionnaire. After one week treatment sessions were executed on the experimental group. The experimental group received 8-10 sessions of emotionally focused couple therapy that each session lasted two hours. One week after the end of treatment sessions, the participants completed the questionnaire again .T-test results of pre-test and post-test revealed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in intimacy. Further results (MANOVA) showed that EFCT increased emotional, psychological, sexual, physical, relationship, temporal and intellectual intimacy, but there was no significant difference between the two groups in social-recreational and spiritual intimacy. Authors concluded that EFCT increased intimacy in experimental group compared with the control group. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.