Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background and objective: Common Factors Couple Therapy Paradigm proposed by Sprenkle, Davis and Lebow is an integrative therapeutic approach. This approach relies on such facilitating variables as the couple and therapist’s personality and their motivation to form a therapeutic alliance and therapeutic process. In the initial stage, Common Factors Couple Therapy Paradigm emphasizes problem conceptualization, awareness raising and recognizing the existent condition. In the subsequent stage, it emphasizes executing interventions and stopping dysfunctional communication patterns.  The final stage is common conclusion and treatment pursuit. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Common Factors Couple Therapy Paradigm on capability of couple’s effective dialogue.
Methods: This is a two-group pretest-post quasi-experimental study.  The population included all couples unable to engage in effective dialogues visiting counseling centers in Urmia-Iran in 2014 -2015 school year. Random sampling used to recruit 32 participants. The participants randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The experimental group received 10 sessions of Common Factors Couple Therapy Paradigm, 3 sessions for the first stage, 5 sessions for the second stage and 2 sessions for the final stage. Each session took 60 minutes. The Control group received no training. Measurement tools consisted of Effective Dialogue Questionnaire (EDQ).This questionnaire has 43 question and includes the Literature of Conversation (LC), Expression of Feelings (EF), Expression of Needs (EN), and Nonverbal Communication Associated with Verbal Skills (NCAVS), Nonverbal Communication Unassociated with Verbal Communication (NCUVS), Listening Skills (LS), Mirroring Skills (MS), Validation Skills (VS) and Empathy Skills (SE) in Couple’s Effective Dialogue. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) used to analyze the data.
Results: Results showed a significant difference in capability of couples to engage in effective dialogue before and after the intervention in experimental group (p<0.001). The Completely experimental group ability increased in the following subscales: the Literature of Conversation, Expression of feelings, Expression of Needs, Nonverbal Communication Associated with Verbal Skills, Nonverbal Communication Unassociated with Verbal Communication, Listening Skills, Mirroring Skills, Validation Skills and Empathy Skills.
Conclusion: It concluded that that Common Factors Couple Therapy Paradigm raised capability of couples for effective dialogue in experimental group. The research findings have practical implications as well.