Background and Aim:  Diabetics are in need of assistance and education in order to know and understand their health status; decision making for health care, health behavior changes, and improving health care. According to WHO, education is the cornerstone of diabetes treatment. Key goals of diabetes education are behavior change and promotion of self-care. Emotional self-care, which requires special attention, is a type of self-feeling an individual has regarding himself/herself and his/her own abilities to manage different emotions; and fight against various problems.

The current study aimed at comparing between the effect of group education and that of group counseling on emotional self-care in type II diabetics.

Materials and Methods:  In a clinical trial, 112 type II diabetics referring to Mashhad Parsian Diabetes Clinic in 2014 were selected through convenient sampling.

They were randomly allocated into three groups; i.e. counseling (n=37), education (n=37), and control (n=38). Group counseling and group education were held for five sessions (1.5 hours each) every three days; each group consisting of 8 to 10 patients. A researcher-designed diabetes emotional care questionnaire was filled out before and two months after the intervention per each subject.

Finally the obtained data was analyzed by means of SPSS (V. 11.5) applying paired. T-Test and ANOVA at the significant level of P=0.05.

Results: The groups did not show any significant differences in emotional self-care before the intervention (P=0.834). After the intervention, however, self-care significantly decreased in patients who had group counseling (36.3±14.7) and group education (31.5±11.4) compared to the control group (50.5±19.1); P=0.001.

Conclusion:  Regarding the results, one can say not only group education but also group counseling  can improve emotional self-care in diabetics. Thus, it is recommended that with regard to ability, experience, and knowledge of nurses and capabilities of the subjects either of these two methods should be used in self- care of. type II diabetics.