Equine Assisted Therapy for Adolescents Challenged by Anxiety in Schools

Abstract

Adolescent anxiety is highly problematic in the high school setting and can cause long-term persistent mental health issues such as further anxiety, depression, and substance use problems later in life. Animal-assisted therapy, and more specifically, equine-assisted counselling has been shown to be beneficial in reducing anxiety symptoms and helping adolescents in developing strategies to overcome patterns of anxiety. It has also been suggested that equine-assisted counselling may function by way of an attachment-based model, in that the client-therapist working alliance in strengthened with the use of the horse in addition to the client-horse relationship providing the client with an additional relational connection. This capstone aims to propose a study for further research in equine-assisted counselling in the high school setting using phenomenological qualitative methodology for students with anxiety.