Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Group Therapy in Social Intimacy, Social Acceptance, and Self-Compassion of Clients with anxiety referring to Counseling Centers

Anxiety is a general,vague,andvery unpleasant emotional feeling accompanied by many uncomfortable physical sensations. Objective: The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotion-focused group therapy in social intimacy, social acceptance, and compassion of clients with anxiety referring to counseling centers in Isfahan. Method: This quasi-experimental study used a pre-test, post-test design with a control group and a one-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the study included 40 clients with anxiety referring to counseling centers in Isfahan in the spring and summer of 2020. They were selected via the available sampling method from Tohid counseling centers in Isfahan and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (n=20 in each group). The experimental group received an emotion-focused treatment program in 12 120-min sessions (once a week), while the control group did not receive any intervention. The research instruments included the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) questionnaire, self-compassion scale, social intimacy questionnaire, and social acceptance test scale. The acquired data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance in SPSS software (version 24). Results: The results pointed out that emotion-focused therapy had a significant effect on the enhancement of social intimacy, social acceptance, and self-compassion (P<0.01). Conclusion: It can be concluded that emotion-focused group therapy is a useful intervention to increase social intimacy, social acceptance, and self-compassion in people with generalized anxiety disorder.