effects of emotion-focused therapy and existential group therapy on depression, anxiety, and stress in the victims of child sexual harassment

Background: traumatic childhood experiences, especially sexual harassment, are among themain factors causing anxiety disorders. the present study aimed to determine the effects ofemotion-focused therapy (eft) and existential group therapy (egt) on depression, anxiety,and stress in the victims of child sexual harassment.methods: this was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test and a control groupdesign. the research population consisted of all men and women with a history of child sexualharassment referring to the counseling and psychological service centers of isfahan city, iran.in total, 45 subjects were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned intotwo experimental groups and a control group (n=15/group). the experimental groups receivedeft or egt (eight 90-minute sessions), accordingly, the obtained results were compared withthe control group immediately after the intervention and 3 months later. the required datawere collected by the depression anxiety stress scales (dass-42) and analyzed by repeatedmeasuresanalysis of variance (anova) in spss.results: the current research results revealed that egt effectively reduced depression symptoms(p<0.01); however, eft did not significantly affect depression symptoms. both interventionsreduced anxiety symptoms in the study subjects (p<0.01). furthermore, eft was more effectivethan egt in reducing stress symptoms (p<0.01). there was a significant difference between thepre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages as well as the time*group interaction in the mean scoresof depression, anxiety, and stress (p<0.01).