The Effectiveness of Hypnotherapy and Schema Therapy in Improving Emotional Control in People Affected by Marital Infidelity

Background: Controlling emotions can be influential in increasing the quality of married life and coping with the outcomes of uncovering extramarital affairs. Objectives: This study hence investigated the effectiveness of hypnotherapy and schema therapy in improving emotional control in people affected by marital infidelity. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest control design and a three-month follow-up. The study population included all couples dealing with marital infidelity who visited Mehr-e-Taban Counseling and Psychological Services Center in Tehran, Iran in 2021. A total of 48 individuals were selected through convenient sampling and randomly assigned to the two experimental groups and the control group (n = 16). The first experimental group received eight 90-minute hypnotherapy sessions and the second received ten 90-minute schema therapy sessions. The research instrument included the Emotion Control Questionnaire (ECQ). The data were analyzed using ANCOVA and post hoc tests in SPSS-22. Results: The mean ± SD of the posttest score of emotional control in hypnotherapy and schema therapy groups was 47.62 ± 2.80 and 48.82 ± 1.45, which was significantly different from the control group (P < 0.001). The findings revealed that both therapeutic approaches were effective in improving emotional control and its four components including rehearsal, emotional inhibition, aggression control, and benign control in the participants (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the effects of hypnotherapy and schema therapy in improving emotional control. Conclusions: The results indicated that using both therapeutic approaches in counseling centers can be influential in helping maladjusted couples to improve and reduce their marital problems and increase their satisfaction, particularly in couples damaged by infidelity.