Background: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of emotion-focused couple therapy and mindfulness on emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility of couples seeking divorce.
Method: The statistical population of the study was conflicting couples referring to Mehr Counseling Center in Jiroft city, 45 of whom were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people in each group) and a control group (15 people). The research tools included the Gross and John's Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2003) and the Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire (Dennis and Vanderwaal (2010). Data analysis was performed using repeated measures and a Bonferroni post hoc test with SPSS-26 software.
Results: The results showed that emotion-focused couple therapy and mindfulness led to a significant increase in emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility, and emotion-focused couple therapy showed higher effectiveness compared to mindfulness training in increasing emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility (P<0.01).
Conclusion: Emotion-focused couple therapy training and mindfulness is effective on emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility of couples seeking divorce, and emotion-focused couple therapy had a greater effectiveness on cognitive flexibility than the mindfulness group. Therefore, it can be used in premarital education sessions and couple therapy interventions.
Keywords: Emotion-focused couple therapy, mindfulness, regulation Emotional, cognitive flexibility, divorce