Comparison of the Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Therapy on Grief Symptoms in Female Nurses

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Master of Science in Clinical Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Sirjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sirjan, Iran

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine and compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy and emotion-focused therapy on grief symptoms in female nurses suffering from grief disorder. This research was conducted using a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest-follow-up and a control group. The statistical population included all female nurses with grief disorder working in hospitals in Kerman province in 2024. Among them, 45 participants were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to three groups: mindfulness-based therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and control. Participants completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) and the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist (Hogan, 2001) during the pretest, posttest, and follow-up phases. The mindfulness-based therapy was delivered in six 90-minute sessions, and the emotion-focused therapy in nine 90-minute sessions. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS, with a significance level of 0.05. The findings indicated that both mindfulness-based therapy and emotion-focused therapy significantly reduced grief symptoms (P = 0.001) compared to the control group. Furthermore, the mean grief symptoms showed a significant difference over time between the experimental and control groups (P = 0.001). The practical implication of this study is the demonstrated effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy and mindfulness-based therapy on grief disorder symptoms. Therefore, it is recommended that these therapies be considered as core interventions for female nurses suffering from grief disorder.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Organizational psychology
Volume 3, Issue 1
January 2026
Pages 1-9

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