The Impact of an EMDR-Focused PsychoeducationProgram for Women Who Cannot Have ChildrenNaturally on Infertility Stress

Abstract

This research aims to examine the impact of an EMDR-focused Psychoeducation program developed for women experiencing infertility on the stress experienced by women. A quasi-experimental design was employed, incorporating a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test with a control group. Fourteen people, 7 in the experimental group and 7 in the control group, aged between 25 and 40, living in Istanbul, who could not have children naturally, participated in this study. An EMDR-focused Psychoeducation program was applied to the participants in the experimental group; no treatment was applied to the participants in the control group. Pre-test and post-test data were collected using the Infertility Stress Scale. Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, which are nonparametric tests, were used to analyze the data. The data obtained from the research were analyzed using the SPSS 29.00. According to the results, the infertility stress experienced by women participating in the psychoeducation program in the personal area is lower than that of the control group. Post-test scores in the individual domain of infertility stress were lower than pre-test scores among participants in the experimental group. In this case, the EMDR-focused Psychoeducation program may effectively reduce infertility stress experienced in the personal domain.

Keywords

• group counseling
• Emdr therapy
• infertility stress
• psycho-education program
• psychological counseling

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