An Arena for Success: Exploring Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Abstract

Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is a relatively new experientially-based therapy that has been applied to individuals, couples, families, and groups. There is a small but growing literature base that speaks to EAP's potential for working with very challenging clients. Adjudicated juveniles diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are one such group. This paper contains a brief presentation of a case study that illustrates how EAP can be implemented, a description of the evolution of EAP, the components of EAP, and a discussion of the hypothesized mechanisms that account for its effectiveness. Key words: Equine Therapy, oppositional clients, EAP Theory, therapeutic factors