International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Research. Vol., 2(2), 59-64, 2013 Available online at http:// www.ijpbrjournal.com ISSN 2322-4002 ©2013 VictorQuest Publications Effectiveness of existential psychotherapy in increasing the resiliency of mentally retarded children’s mothers Zainab Rezaie 1 , Ali Mohammad Nazari 1 , Kiyanoush Zahrakar 1, Neda Smaeeli Far 1 1- Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran *Corresponding Author Email: rezaie.2000@yahoo.com Abstract The research purpose is to assess the effectiveness of existential psychotherapy in increasing the resiliency of mentally-retarded children’s mothers. Therefore, this study employed an experimental design and the sample comprised 24 mothers having mentally retarded children who were assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group underwent 9 sessions of existential psychotherapy. The research tools included the Resiliency Scale Questionnaire designed and developed by Hamdel et al. Descriptive statistics, including the analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. Findings indicated that existential psychotherapy has proved to be effective in increasing the resiliency of mentally retarded children’s mothers. The use of various treatment approaches such as existential approach can enhance and enrich the mental health of mothers of mentally retarded children. Keywords: Treatment, Resiliency, Mothers with Retarded Children Introduction Resilience is a concept used to underline preventive and therapeutic approaches that reinforce the resources of children and adults, families and communities (Ozcan, 2004) Resilience capacities involve coping well with difficulty, actively resisting destructive pressures and rebuilding positively after adversity. However, we do not exercise these capacities in equal measure (Wuchenich, 2008). Some people manage destructive life events more efficaciously. Others lose a sense of meaning or emotional stability. Certain humans find a positive outcome to the negative situation. Others become aggressive and abusive, or drug or alcohol dependent. Although some humans do well despite their at-risk status, resilience is not absolute. No one is simply resilient. Resilience researchers seek to explain why some humans neither acquire disorders nor under-develop when faced with a common threat. This approach draws upon but outstrips an epidemiological focus on risk, stress and vulnerability (Herring, 2006). The resilience perspective considers specific challenges that humans have mastered, the actual context of their stress and protection, as well as their personally or socially accumulated vulnerability and protection (buffering). (Mikaeeli Mani, 2009) Certain existential and psychoanalytical insights further illustrate the dynamics of fear and anxiety. In particular these approaches widen the domain of fear beyond considerations of death and physical danger. According to Paul Tillich’s existentialist approach (1952/2000), fear and anxiety have three objects: first, physical dangers and death; second, doubt and meaninglessness; and third, guilt and condemnation. Kang illustrates the need for courage to assume the existential (irresolvable) anxiety that constitutes the way that human beings must face not only death and physical dangers, but also threats to meaning and social participation (including salvation). This insight has value and application beyond the limitations of his existential project. It suggests distinguishing two basic types of fear: (1) an everyday fear whose concrete object threatens physical life and meaning, and (2) an ultimate fear whose object concerns at least a moral order. This ultimate fear also refers to a revealed moral order and our relationship with God (Kang, 2009). This discussion will continue later in the context of Aquinas treatment of acquired and infused virtues of fortitude, in chapter five .E. H. Erikson, furthermore, in his psychoanalytical approach, construes anxiety to influence the three human processes: the somatic processes inherent