effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety, cognitive avoidance, and empathy of couples visiting counseling centers in ahvaz city, iran

Background: anxiety can reduce the couples’ self-confidence and damage their mental health.the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy(act) on anxiety, cognitive avoidance, and empathy among couples visiting counseling centersin ahvaz city, iran, in 2020.methods: the research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test design, followup,and a control group. the statistical population consisted of all couples with low maritaladjustment who were referred to the psychological centers of ahvaz in 2019. using a conveniencesampling method, 30 participants were selected and randomly divided into experimental andcontrol groups (n=15 per group). the research instruments included the symptom checklist-90-revised, the cognitive avoidance questionnaire, and the basic empathy scale. the experimentalgroup underwent eight 90-min sessions (one session per week) of act, and the control groupdid not receive any intervention. the follow-up was performed after 45 days. repeated-measuresanova was used to analyze the data in spss.results: act effectively decreased anxiety and cognitive avoidance and increased empathyamong couples in the experimental group (p<0.001). the mean±sd pre-test and post-test scoresof anxiety in the experimental group were 23.33±2.89 and 18.93±3.36, respectively, whichdecreased compared to the post-test mean score (24.27±2.96) of the control group.conclusion: act decreased anxiety and cognitive avoidance and significantly increased empathyin married individuals. act can improve empathy in couples involved in marital conflicts.