effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on resiliency and alexithymia of somatic symptoms

Objective: the present study aimed to investigate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on the resiliency and alexithymia of the patients with somatic symptom disorder (ssd). methods: the present research had a quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test and a control group. the study population included all patients with ssd that referred to health care centers of ahvaz city, in 2016. a total of 30 patients were selected through convenience sampling method and randomized to the experimental and waiting group (each group 15 persons). the experimental group received act sessions for 7 weeks continuously (each session lasting 90 minutes), and the control group was put on a waiting list. groups completed the resiliency questionnaire and toronto alexithymia scale in the pre-test and post-test. the obtained data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance in spss v. 21. results: the findings show a significant difference between the average scores of resiliency (f=21.97) and alexithymia (f=19.79) of the experimental and control groups in the post-test stage. so, the method of group therapy based on acceptance and commitment significantly increased resiliency and decreased alexithymia of the patients with ssd (p<0.01). conclusion: according to the results, therapists and clinical psychologists can use this method to increase resiliency and decrease alexithymia of the patients with ssd.