Effectiveness of Solution- Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) on Reducing Depression and Increasing Marital Satisfaction in Married Women

Solution- focused brief therapy is among modern approaches in individual, couple and family therapies which focus on finding solutions rather than on problems. The present study was conducted by the aim of investigating the effectiveness of solution focused brief therapy in reducing depression and uplifting marital satisfaction in married women.
Material & The present study was a quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest design with control group. The research population consisted of all married women with depression and unsatisfied with marital life who visited Hamyaran-e-Salamat mental center of Ravanshahr, Bojnourd city in the second half of 2014. Among the applicants to participate in the research, 30 women were selected by available sampling method and they were randomly assigned into control and experiment groups. The research tools were the Depression Inventory of Beck and the Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire which were completed by participants in pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. Afterwards, the solution-focused intervention was offered to the experimental group for 6 sessions, but the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed via multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and repeated measures method by SPSS (v.16) Software.
After the posttest and follow-up stages, results suggested a significant reduction in depression and increase in marital satisfaction scores in the experimental group compared to the control group. The findings indicate that the solution-focused brief therapy reduced the rate of depression and increased marital satisfaction among women in the intervention group. The results were persistent in the follow-up stage, as well.
The results demonstrated the effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy in decreasing depression and increasing marital satisfaction. Therefore, conducting interventions based on this therapeutic approach can be effective in reducing psychological problems, such as depression and will improve the marital relationships of clients.