Comparing the Effectiveness of Group Counseling based on Reality Therapy and Schema Therapy Approaches on Self-differentiation in Dependent Women

The purpose of this research was to compare the effectiveness of two approaches of reality-therapy and schema-therapy on self-differentiation in a group of dependent women.

A controlled clinical trial design was chosen. Among population of referred women to counseling centers in Mashhad in 2019, a sample of 24 women were selected by available sampling method and randomly divided to three groups of schema-therapy, reality-therapy and control group. Two experimental groups received 8 sessions of 90 minutes interventions for 1 month, whereas the control group remained in the waiting list. Instruments were included the Skorown Friedlander's Differentiation and Dependence on Others questionnaires. Multivariate and univariate covariance analysis were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that both treatment approaches had a positive and significant effect on self-differentiation in the post-test phase. Given the comparisons between two counseling groups, schema therapy was more effective than reality therapy on differentiation, but both approaches had no significant effect on emotional cut-off.

Reality therapy by emphasising on responsibility, and schema therapy by identifying the roots of problems and creating autonomy, both can improve self-differentiation in dependent women.