Abstract: Objective: To explore the effects of positive psychology-based group counseling on rehabilitation of patients after Achilles tendon rupture surgery, so as to provide a reference for clinical rehabilitation intervention. Methods: Convenience sampling method was adopted to select 191 patients who underwent channel-assisted minimally invasive surgery in the trauma orthopedic department of a tertiary grade A hospital in Beijing from August 2020 to June 2024 as the research participants. They were randomly divided into an observation group (n=96) and a control group (n=95). The control group received routine rehabilitation care, while the observation group received 24 weeks of positive psychology-based group counseling in addition to routine rehabilitation care. Scores for the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia-11 (TSK-11), Visual Analog Scale for Pain (VAS), Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot Score, and complications were compared between the two groups after the intervention. Results: After 6 months intervention, the observation group had a significantly lower TSK-11 score and VAS score than those of control group, and the complication incidence rate in the observation group was 19.79%, which was lower than 43.16% in the control group, the observation group also showed significantly higher scores of PTGI and Ankle-Hindfoot compared to the control group, and the differences were all statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Positive psychology-based group counseling can effectively reduce kinesiophobia, relieve pain intensity, and promote post-traumatic growth in patients after Achilles tendon rupture, it is worthy of clinical promotion and application.

Key words: positive psychology-based group counseling; Achilles tendon rupture surgery; kinesiophobia; pain; post-traumatic growth