Evaluating the Effectiveness and Continuity of the Effect of Positive Mindfulness Therapy and Compassion Therapy on Experiential Avoidance and Emotion Dysregulation in Women Victims of Domestic Violence

A review of theoretical and empirical backgrounds shows that positive mindfulness-based therapy and compassion-based therapy have been effective in emotion dysregulation and avoidance of experiments. But it is not yet clear which of these interventions will be more effective and more stable over time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and continuity of the effect of positive mindfulness therapy and compassion therapy on experiential avoidance and emotion dysregulation in women victims of domestic violence. The present study was an applied One related to the purpose and in terms of design a quasi-experimental one with pre-test and multi-group post-test with a  control group and a follow-up of three months. The statistical population of the present study consisted of all women victims of domestic violence who were members of safe houses in Shiraz in 2009-2010. Assessment instruments included Granefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven's emotion regulation questionnaire (2001) and Bond et al's experience avoidance questionnaire (2010). One group received the Hofmann, Wu & Boettcher (2014) Positive Mindfulness Intervention, and the other group received the Gilbert (2010) Compassionate Therapy Experiment in 8 sessions of 90 minutes each, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance and Benferoni method. The results showed that compassion-based therapy and positive mindfulness-based therapy are effective on emotion dysregulation and avoidance of experiments (p<0.01). Compassion-based therapy is more effective than mindfulness therapy in reducing emotion dysregulation and avoiding experimental experiences (p<0.01). It seems that compassionate therapy and positive mindfulness therapy can be used as a preventive and remedial measure in increasing the mental health and quality of life of women victims of domestic violence.Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript.