Just about every couple considers a successful marriage a dream and aims to start spousal life, but this is an actual challenge. In reaching this aim, attaining knowledge can be a worthy initial step on the way to forming a positive and healthy marriage relationship. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a new treatment with a positive impact on marital satisfaction. This form of therapy is very instrumental in bringing married couples closer and making them even more satisfied with their partners and relationships. Therefore, this paper reviews the concept of marital satisfaction and its enhancement through ACT, particularly in terms of relevance to Iranian couples. This paper additionally highlights the significance of future research on ACT for enhancing marital satisfaction among Iranian couples.

This study investigates the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy (ACGT) on marital satisfaction among Iranian, postgraduate married couples residing in Malaysia. The study utilised a true experimental (pretest/posttest, control group) design. Seventy-two students (36 couples) with the lowest scores from the Marital Satisfaction Inventory were randomly selected and randomly assigned into either the experimental or control group to receive either ACGT or no therapy. Subsequently, analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) showed significant differences in marital satisfaction between the experimental and control groups. The current study finds that marital satisfaction showed considerable enhancement after the ACGT, and besides, the effects of ACGT on marital satisfaction were retained after four weeks. The evaluation of the couples of the ACGT programme was also collected, which appeared to be satisfactory. This study has significant implications for marital satisfaction and counselling practice holistically.

Pregnancy is an important event in the life of every woman that is associated with conflicting emotions. Having a newborn baby can be accompanied by hardships and loss of desire, as well as other stresses in life, all of which can have adverse effects on the mental health of the mother and her family. Depression is a common mental disorder in mothers during and after childbirth, which can have negative consequences for mother and baby. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is one of the new treatments with a positive impact on the reduction of depression during pregnancy and afterward. This form of psychotherapy is significant in increasing the psychological flexibilities of women as well as reducing their distress and depressive symptoms during pregnancy and during the postpartum period. Hence this paper aims to review the literature on the concept of depression, its symptoms, and outcomes during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and subsequently, it reviews how ACT can reduce depression, in terms of relevance to Iranian mothers. The studies were selected and identified through online databases from relevant published articles in psychology, psychotherapy, and mental health journals. The reviews of the literature on the ACT and reducing depression in pregnancy and postpartum period were identified from research studies in Iran from 2015 to the present time. This paper highlights the significance of future research into ACT for reducing depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period among Iranian women.