Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Body Image of Women with Breast Cancer after Mastectomy Surgery
Background & Aim: In recent years, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been used a lot with emphasis on acceptance of life problems and psychological flexebility. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on body image of women with breast cancer after mastectomy surgery. Methods: The research method was semi-experimental with experimental and control group with pre-test and post-test. A sapmle of 26 female with breast cancer were selected through targeted sampling from Alla charity center in Isfahan in year 2017 and assigned to two groups with 13 subjects. The experimental group received ACT in 8 sessions. The measurement tool was multidimensional questionnaire on personal body image (MBSRQ) that was used in both the experimental and control groups in pre-test and post-test. The findings were analyzed using SPSS. Results: The results of covariance analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of body image and its dimensions in experimental and control group and ACT was effective on improvement of body image in patients of experimental group (p<0.05). Conclusion: in general, the ACT seems to be effective on improvement of psychological problems in women with breast canscer.