effect of two couple therapies, acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy, on forgiveness and fear of intimacy in conflicting couples

Objective: this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of aceptance and commitmenttherapy (act) and schema therapy on forgiveness and fear of intimacy in conflicting couples.methods: this quasi-experimental study was conducted using a pre-test, post-test design with acontrol group. the participants were selected from the conflicting couples who were referred tocounseling and psychological service centers in districts 1 and 5 of tehran in 2019. of the coupleswho scored high on the fear-of-intimacy scale and obtained a low score on the interpersonalforgiveness inventory, 30 couples (60 people) were selected using convenience sampling andrandomly assigned to the schema therapy group (10 couples), the act group (10 couples), andthe control group (10 couples). then, the participants in each of the intervention groups attendedeight 90-minute therapy sessions based on act and schema therapy techniques. after theinterventions, the participants in the three groups completed the questionnaires again and werefollowed up after three months.results: the results showed that both act and schema therapy had a significant effect on fearof intimacy and forgiveness. upon controlling the pre-test score, significant differences werefound between the two act and schema therapy groups in terms of reconnection and revengecontrol (p<0.01), but the two groups were not significantly different in terms of resentmentcontrol, realistic perceptions, and fear of intimacy and schema couple therapy was moreeffective than act in controlling conflicting couples’ revenge and improving reconnectionand this greater effectiveness was still retained in the follow-up phase.conclusion: act and schema-based couple therapies can be used by psychologists andcounselors as effective approaches to increase forgiveness and reduce fear of intimacy incouples. however, schema couple therapy is more effective than act in controlling negativeemotions and treating them in couples.