The Effectiveness of Short-Term Integrative Couple Therapy in Enhancing Marital Intimacy among Couples
Keywords:
Couple therapy, marital intimacy, short-term integrative couple therapy, emotional intimacy, marital relationshipAbstract
Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of short-term integrative couple therapy in enhancing marital intimacy among couples experiencing reduced emotional intimacy.
Methods and Materials: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest–posttest design with a two-month follow-up and a control group. The statistical population included all couples who referred to Ganj Mehr Counseling Center in Babol in 2025 and reported reduced emotional intimacy in their marital relationship. Using purposive sampling, 15 couples who scored one standard deviation below the mean on the Bagarozzi Marital Intimacy Questionnaire were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received short-term integrative couple therapy in seven weekly sessions, each lasting two hours, while the control group received no intervention during the study period. The research instrument was the Marital Intimacy Questionnaire developed by Bagarozzi (2001). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 through univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance at the significance level of 0.05.
Findings: The inferential results indicated a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups after the intervention. Short-term integrative couple therapy significantly increased overall marital intimacy and its components among couples with reduced emotional intimacy. Furthermore, the significant therapeutic effects observed in the posttest phase remained statistically stable during the two-month follow-up period. The results of univariate and multivariate covariance analyses confirmed that the intervention had a significant effect on improving marital intimacy compared with the control condition (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Short-term integrative couple therapy appears to be an effective therapeutic approach for improving marital intimacy and its related components among couples experiencing reduced emotional closeness. Therefore, couple therapists and marital counselors can use this approach as a practical intervention to strengthen emotional intimacy and improve marital relationships.
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