The Effectiveness of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Using the “Hold Me Tight” Method on Attachment Styles, Marital Adjustment and Sexual Intimacy

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of emotionally focused couple therapy using the "Hold Me Tight" method on attachment styles, marital adjustment, and sexual intimacy during the first five years of marriage. This research was conducted in terms of purpose and semi-experimental methodology in the form of pretest-posttest follow-up. The statistical population of this study included urban couples in 2020.Thirty-five couples agreed to participate in the study and were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Couples training consisted of 4 sessions of 4 hours each over 4 consecutive weeks. The measurement instruments were the Revised Adult Attachment Scale Collins and Reed (RAAS), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale Spinner (DAS), and the Standard Sexual Intimacy Questionnaire (SSIQ) of Botlani et al. For data analysis, the mixed method analysis was used with SPSS software version 24. In the present study, the interactive effect of time group on secure attachment style (P=0.001, F=10.87), ambivalent attachment style (P=0.011, F=5.80), dyadic satisfaction (P=0.002, F=8.06), dyadic correlation (P=0.001, F=7.92), and sexual intimacy (P=0.014, F=4.47) was significant. The results of the present study indicate that emotionally focused couples therapy using the Hold Me Tight method improves secure and ambivalent/anxious attachment styles and sexual intimacy in couples.