Comparing the Effectiveness of Gottman's Couple Therapy and Emotion-Focused Therapy on Couples' Marital Intimacy

Background: a person's satisfaction with marital life is regarded as his/her satisfaction with the family, and family satisfaction means life satisfaction which consequently facilitates the growth and spiritual progress of the society.objective: the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of gottman's model and emotion-focused therapy on couples' marital intimacy.method: this quasi-experimental research was conducted based on a pre-test, post-test control group design with follow-up. the statistical population of the study included the couples who were referred to clinics in the west of tehran in 2020. a number of 24 couples were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to three groups: two intervention groups (gottman couple therapy and emotional therapy) and a control group (n=8 in each group). the experimental groups underwent 10 90-min sessions of gottman's couple therapy and emotion-focused therapy, while the control group stayed on the waiting list. data were collected based on the intimacy needs questionnaire and analyzed in spss software using repeated measures analysis of variance.results: the results demonstrated that gottman's model and emotion-focused therapy exerted an effect on couples' marital intimacy and there was no significant difference between the two treatments in terms of effectiveness (p<0.01).conclusion: as evidenced by the results of this study, it can be concluded that gottman's model method and emotion-focused therapy are both effective in the enhancement of couples' marital intimacy and can be used as therapeutic or educational methods in couple therapy programs.