The Effects of Equine-Assisted Experiential Therapy on Psychotherapy Patients

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The use of animals in therapy for mental health patients has been documented as early as 1792. Animal-assisted therapy is described as one or more companion animal being present in the therapy room during a session. Studies showing the use of animals in therapy generate positive results in the treatment of psychological and physical symptoms in diverse patients. The use of horses as an approach to animal-assisted therapy has used to treat a variety of psychological problems.1 This is because the horse evokes some sort of emotion in everyone and for many the response is powerful, which makes the horse a perfect candidate for psychotherapy. Equine Assisted Experiential Therapy is defined as a psychotherapeutic program or session using 1 or more horses as part of the psychotherapeutic team.2 Qualitative and quantitative results have been found to prove that horses do indeed improve patients psychological problems in the research preformed by Bradley Klontz, Alex Bivens, Deb Leinart and Ted Klontz. Research was preformed in the Southern United States prior to it being submitted for publishing in 2007 under the title The Effectiveness of Equine-Assisted Experiential Therapy: Results of an Open Clinical Trial.1 There are many reasons the trials on Equine Assisted Experiential Therapy are being conducted. One of the many reasons is to see if animals, in particularly horses, are a feasible treatment approach to resolve unexpressed feelings in a patients current life that interfere with their capability to function effectively. Also another reason was to determine just how effective the use of horses as a psychotherapy treatment is.1 Treatment was assessed in a 4 and a ½ day residential program. The program offered 28 hours of Equine Assisted Experiential Therapy in group therapy format. The groups averaged around 8 participants in a group. There were 66 participants that

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