The Effectiveness of Gutman's Cognitive-Systemic Couple Therapy in Marital Conflicts of Divorce Applicants

Considering the increase of marital conflicts and the statistics of divorce and its negative consequences, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of Gutman's cognitive-systemic couple therapy in the marital conflicts of divorce applicants.

The research method was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test type with a control group with a follow-up period of two months. The statistical population of the research included all the couples applying for divorce in Mashhad who were referred to the Psychodynamic Counseling Center by the family court in the fall of 2020 due to marital disputes. From the target population, 30 eligible people who volunteered to participate in the research were selected by available sampling method and divided into two test groups (15 people) and control (15 people) by simple randomization using a coin toss. The research tool was Sanai Marital Conflicts Questionnaire. The intervention group participated in eight Gutman cognitive-systemic couple therapy sessions, but the control group did not receive any intervention and were placed on the waiting list for treatment. The data were analyzed with the analysis of variance test with repeated measurements and SPSS-16 software.

The results showed that the intervention and control groups had significant differences in the components of marital conflicts. In other words, Gutman's cognitive-systemic couple therapy was effective in reducing the components of marital conflicts (p<0.001); and these results continued in the follow-up period.

Based on the results, she used Gutman's cognitive-systemic couple therapy to reduce marital conflicts and improve the relationship of couples seeking divorce.