Yousef Dehghani

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of theater therapy on self- expression, shyness and social empowerment of female students with anxiety in the fifth and sixth grades. This research is a quasi-experimental study using a pre-test- post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research consists of female students aged 01 to 01 with anxiety who study in the fifth and sixth grades in the academic year 0011-0010, of which 01 students were selected by available sampling method. They were selected and randomly replaced in two experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in 8 sessions of theater therapy, while the control group received no intervention. In order to collect data, the self-expression questionnaires of Gambrill and Ritchie (0791), the Stanford hypocrisy questionnaire and the social competence questionnaire of Cohen and Resman (0791) were used. The data were analyzed using SPSS10 software and the analysis of covariance method. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the mean post-test scores of the experimental group and the control group, so that theater therapy has reduced shyness and increased self- expression and social empowerment of the experimental group (P<1011). Considering the importance of self-expression, shyness and social empowerment in female students with anxiety, counseling and therapy centers can help to reduce shyness and increase self-expression and social empowerment of students by providing theater therapy sessions. Key words: Theater therapy, Self-expression, Shyness, Social Empowerment, Anxiety