The Effectiveness of Group Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Therapy on Alexithymia and Marital Boredom, Case study: Women Affected by Marital Infidelity in Mashhad, Iran

Introduction: The aim of current paper was to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy (ACT) and group cognitive therapy (GCT) on Alexithymia and marital boredom (MB) among women affected by marital infidelity in Mashhad. Method: This clinical trial was a double- blind study with a pretest-posttest design in which two intervention groups and one control group were investigated. The study performed on women who realized their spouse infidelity and referred to Azad University Counseling Center in Mashhad in 2018. The sample consisted of 30 women who were selected by purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to two intervention groups and a control group (n=10 per group). The intervention groups were put under ACT training (twelve 90-minute sessions) and GCT training (twelve 90-minute sessions), but the control group did not receive any intervention. Data was obtained by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 and Pines Marital Boredom Scale and was analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance with SPSS (version 22) software. Results: The results showed a significant reduction in the mean score of MB in the ACT group, also there was a significant reduction in the mean score of Alexithymia in the GCT group (P <0.05). So comparing both therapies, ACT was more influential on reducing marital boredom whereas GCT was more effective on reducing alexithymia. Conclusion: Although both intervention methods were effective on Alexithymia and Marital Boredom in women affected by marital infidelity, it was demonstrated that ACT and GCT have more effect on Marital Boredom and Alexithymia, respectively.

Analysis of Demand Changes in a University Counseling Center Telehealth System

The Counseling and Wellness Center (CWC) offers various types of mental health appointments for students at the University of Florida. The CWC is implementing a new walk-in system for student appointments to increase the timeliness and accessibility of first appointments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CWC shifted to offer telehealth appointments, primarily through Zoom. The research objective is to conduct a data analysis of historical appointment data before the shift to telehealth and after the shift to telehealth to understand how appointment demand changed during the pandemic. The data analysis breaks down the data by appointment type, weekday, and time of day. This project collaborates with staff at the Counseling and Wellness Center and has the goal of helping the CWC better understand demand patterns, so they can better anticipate appointment demand and serve the UF student population in a timely manner.

Assessing Knowledge and Predicting Grief Counseling Skills Among University Counseling Center Therapists

This mixed-method study advances knowledge regarding the practice of grief counseling in a sample of 171 university counseling center therapists. First, several components of therapists’ self-reported work with grieving clients was assessed (e.g., training level, initial responses to a grieving client, principles applied in counseling, therapist comfort, and potential therapist issues related to counseling grieving clients). Second, grounded in the death competence model (Gamino & Ritter, 2012), predictors of perceived grief counseling skills were examined. Cognitive competence and emotional competence predicted perceived grief counseling skills, with training/experience being the most robust predictor. Notably, the participants in this study rarely received education regarding death, dying, and grieving in their graduate programs, and they indicated that their knowledge about grief counseling was insufficient. Moreover, the therapists’ qualitative responses to a case vignette were lacking in many grief-specific domains. Future directions for training, research, and clinical work are discussed.

A-203 Method Matters: Measures of Social Communication Ability Disagree in Women with Autistic Traits

Objective Increasing evidence suggests that many women with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be undiagnosed and thus denied access to supports and interventions. Evaluating suspected ASD involves assessing social communication abilities, and many potentially helpful tools exist. We sought to compare various social communication measures (self-report, clinician-rated, and behavioral) in a sample of women with autistic traits. Method Our sample includes women without intellectual impairment (N = 66; age M = 25 years; IQ M = 114; 63 White) who reported impairing symptoms associated with ASD (BAPQ total score &gt; 3). One third (n = 22) had been diagnosed with ASD. Participants were recruited through local clinics, a university counseling center, and social media. Participants completed the SRS-2 (self-report), ADOS-2 (clinician rating of autistic traits), and TASIT-S (video-based test of social cognition). Results As expected, women with a previous diagnosis of ASD showed significantly more social communication difficulties on the ADOS-2, t(64) = −4.88, p &lt; .001, and TASIT-S, t(64) = 2.23, p = .03. Observable social difficulties on the ADOS-2 were significantly associated with poor performance on the TASIT-S (rS = −.27, p = .03). However, women with an ASD diagnosis did not report more social communication problems on the SRS-2, and SRS-2 scores were not associated with ADOS-2 or TASIT-S scores. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of using a multi-method approach when assessing social communication abilities in women with suspected autism, as self-report measures may not discriminate well mild from more severe impairment, and may disagree with clinician ratings and/or behavioral measures.