Comparing the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy on Negative Automatic Thoughts and Feeling Loneliness in Divorced Women

Divorced women face many health-related problems and require psychological intervention. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion-focused therapy on negative automatic thoughts and feeling of loneliness in divorced women.

This study was quasi-experimental with pretest and posttest design with the control group. The research population included the divorced women admitted to counseling centers in Ahvaz in 2019, among whom 60 subjects were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to three equal groups. Each experimental group was treated using acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion-focused therapy for 8 sessions of 90 minutes. Data were collected in pre-test and post-test stages with negative automatic thoughts and feelings of loneliness scales and analyzed by methods of chi-square, multivariate analysis of covariance, and Bonferroni post hoc test.

The findings showed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of education level, age, number of children, and duration of divorce (p<0.05). Moreover, compared with the control group, acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion-focused therapy led to reduction in negative automatic thoughts and feelings of loneliness in divorced women (p<0.001). However, there was no significant difference between the two methods in reducing negative automatic thoughts and feelings of loneliness (p<0.05).

The results indicated the effectiveness of both treatment methods in reducing negative automatic thoughts and feelings of loneliness. Therefore, therapists and health experts can use both methods to improve health-related traits, especially to reduce negative automatic thoughts and feelings of loneliness.