Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy (EST) Based on the "Lehi" Model on Reducing Level Emotional Exhaustion and Improving Relational Needs for Married Couples

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a counseling program based on emotional therapy in reducing psychological exhaustion and enriching the relationship needs of married women in Riyadh. The study sample consisted of )30( married women who attended Ayami Center for Family Counseling, and they were randomly distributed into two equal groups )experimental and control(, the number of each of them was (n = 15) women. To achieve the objectives of the study, The Marital Exhaustion Scale prepared by Enzmann et al., (1998) and the Relational Needs scale modified by Zvelc, et al )2020( were used to collect the study data In the pre and post-test of the two study groups, and in follow-up testing with the experimental group only, plus a guided program based on Emotional Schema Therapy. The results of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the mean scores on the Psychological Exhaustion Scale in the post-test in favor of the experimental group, and the results also showed that there were statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the mean scores on the scale of relational needs in the post-test in favor of the experimental group. This indicates the effectiveness of the counseling program based on emotional schema therapy. The results of comparisons between the post-measurement after applying a collective counseling program to the experimental group, and the follow-up test after a month has passed from the end of the counseling program, indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group members on the scales of psychological exhaustion and the scale of relational needs and in favor of the tracer follow-up test, which indicates to the efficiency of the collective counseling program used in the current study.