Background: A decrease in positive emotional expressiveness, a decrease in intimacy expressiveness, and an increase in negative emotional expressiveness are related to marital incompatibility. Therefore, it is very important to improve emotional expressiveness in incompatible couples through couple therapy interventions, especially compassion-focused couple therapy, but there is a research gap in the effect of compassion-focused couple therapy on emotional expressiveness in the studied society.
Aims: The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of compassion-focused couple therapy on positive and negative emotional expressiveness and intimacy expressiveness of incompatible couples.
Methods: The design of the current research was semi-experimental, of pre-test-post-test type with a control group. The statistical population was all incompatible couples who referred to Sifa, Behin and Hamraz centers of counseling and psychological services of Khorramabadcity in 2023. A sample of 20 qualified couples was placed in two experimental and control groups using the targeted manner from the available type. Couples were evaluated based on Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire (King & Emmons, 1990) in two stages of pre-test and post-test in both groups. The experimental group received compassion-focused couple therapy (Lotfi et al., 2021) over eight 60-minute sessions. Analysis of covariance and SPSS version 27 software were used for data analysis.
Results: The findings of the present study showed that compassion-focused couple therapy was effective in increasing posiive emotional expressiveness and intimacy expresiveness, as well as reducing the negative emotional expressiveness of incompatible couples (p<0.01).
Conclusion: According to the findings, compassion-focused couple therapy by strengthening positive and adaptive emotions in couples, reducing negative emotions of couples, encouraging couples to express verbal and behavioral compassion and empathy towards their spouses and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of oneself and the spouse improves emotional expressiveness in incompatible couples. Therefore, compassion-focused couple therapy can be used to improve the emotional expressiveness of incompatible couples.
