The Effect of Satir Brief Family Therapy on Alexithymia and Emotional Maturity in Couples Seeking a Divorce

Abstract

Background and Aim: According to Satir's pattern, couples' messaging style expresses their sense of personal worth. Dysfunctional messaging and communication (indirect, vague, incomplete, distorted, inappropriate, and inconsistent) are the hallmarks of a malfunctioning family system. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of Satir brief family therapy on alexithymia and emotional maturity in couples seeking a divorce. Methodology: This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design, a control group, and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population included all couples seeking a divorce referred to Kashan Omid Counseling Center in the second half of 2020, i.e., 100 couples, from which 40 couples were selected by the convenient sampling method after screening using the Sink and Bhargava (1984) Emotional Maturity Scale and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and randomly assigned to the Satir family therapy experimental group (10 couples) and the control group (10 couples). The experimental group received Satir intervention for 90-minute eight sessions, and the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA. Results: The results showed that Satir family therapy intervention affected emotional maturity (P = 0.001, F = 180.40) and alexithymia (P = 0.001, F = 267.72) and that this effect was stable at the follow-up stage. Conclusion: The results suggest evidence that Satir family therapy intervention is a suitable method to reduce alexithymia and improve the stability of emotional maturity in couples with marital problems.