The Value Of Equine-Assisted Therapy
The Institute for the Advancement of Behavioral Healthcare published an article called, “Consider the value of equine therapy” in 2018, written by Brian Albright.
Albright wrote, ”Animal-assisted therapy has grown in popularity over the past few decades, with both psychologist and physical therapists using a variety of critters—including dogs and dolphins—to help their patients. Horses are increasingly part of the mix, with hundreds of facilities offering equine-based or equine-facilitated therapy for a wide range of conditions.”
“While evidence is still largely anecdotal, equine programs are gaining popularity, particularly for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and autism. Like domestic dogs, horses are highly intuitive and have a somewhat unique historical relationship with humans that lends itself to a therapy setting.”
“Their prey nature makes them highly attuned to their environment in order to ensure their safety, which is what makes them intuitive and emotionally sensitive to the slightest gesture, body posture or tension, tone of voice, or glance that we humans may unknowingly communicate,” says Liz Dampsey, PhD, clinical psychology post-doctoral fellow at Sierra Tucson, a residential treatment facility in Arizona that was one of the first such providers in the United States to offer equine therapy. “They respond to our non-verbal behaviors and feelings through their body language.”