Abstract

Background: Careers and the family are considered the most important aspects of adult life, which affect a couplechr('39')s mental health. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotion-focused couple therapy on improving optimism and communication patterns among couples working at state offices of the Ramhormoz County. Materials and Methods: The research method was experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population included 160 couples working at state offices of the Ramhormoz County (Iran) in 2019. Using the convenience sampling method, 50 participants were selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n = 25 per group). The research instruments included the Communication Patterns Questionnaire (CPQ) and the Life Orientation Test (LOT). The experimental group received emotion-focused couple therapy for 10 sessions of 90 minutes each. However, the control group received no intervention. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed in SPSS software V21.0 to analyze the data. Results: The mean ± SD of the posttest scores for optimism and communication patterns were (19.48 ± 3.47) and (17.67 ± 2.79) in the experimental group, as well as (18.63 ± 3.86) and (27.40 ± 4.26) in the control group, respectively. Research findings indicated that emotion-focused couple therapy was effective in improving optimism and communication patterns in couples working at state offices (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Emotion-focused couple therapy was effective in reducing depression symptoms and marital conflicts among couples as well as improving their communication patterns and optimism.