Mindfulness-based schema therapy and forgiveness therapy among women affected by infidelity: A randomized clinical trial

ABSTRACT

Objective: Infidelity causes mental health problems, family disruptions, rumination about events and changes in women’s beliefs about the disloyal person. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based schema (MBS) therapy and forgiveness therapy in emotional responses, cognitive distortions and self-compassion of women affected by infidelity. Method: It was an experimental research with a pretest-posttest and follow-up design. Eighty-one women affected by infidelity were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The experimental groups received interventions for ten 90-minute weekly sessions. Participants completed the questionnaires in the pretest, post-test and follow-up. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used for statistical analysis. Results: Both experimental groups were significantly different from the control group (p<.01). Forgiveness therapy was more effective in emotional responses and self-compassion in the post-test (p<.01) and follow-up (p<.001) stages. MBS therapy was more effective in cognitive distortions in the post-test and follow-up stages (p<.001). Participants of experimental groups were responders and satisfied with treatment and had a good therapeutic relationship. Conclusion: Given the type of problems faced by women affected by infidelity, forgiveness therapy and MBS therapy can be used to reduce mental sufferings and communication problems.

Keywords:

• Infidelity
• women
• schema
• mindfulness
• forgiveness

Acknowledgements

Hereby, we express our great appreciation to the respected manager of Rahyab Couple and Sex Therapy Clinic, who cooperated with the researchers in choosing the sample and holding therapy sessions.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2021.1913294.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Results are shown as graphs in the supplement.