Equine-Assisted Therapy to Treat Eating Disorders 

Equine-assisted therapy is a type of treatment that involves activities with horses and other equines. This type of therapy has been shown to help people with PTSD, autism, and mood disorders, but there is not much research on how it can help eating disorders. This article says that equine-assisted therapy can help patients develop flexibility, patience, confidence, and empathy, which are some of the qualities that people with eating disorders usually lack.  

Horses are very intuitive and sensitive to anxiety, so when a person is anxious, nervous, or just has an uncomfortable vibe and tries approaching a horse, the horse will just walk away. The author talks about two patients who benefited from equine-assisted therapy, Anna and Beth. Anna was a person who cared a lot of what people thought of her and how they perceived her, to the point where she would always be uncomfortable. During her first therapeutic sessions, she would not make any progress with the horses because she was more concerned with not getting her clothes dirty, or sweating. During her third session she gave in and started petting one of the herd members. This taught her not to care so much about what others think and embrace imperfections. Beth was a perfectionist, and when she started her therapy her goal was to give up some control and become more flexible. During one of her therapy sessions, one of the horses had an accident and got a gate stuck around his head, Beth had to help the horse and calm him down. By the time it was over, she related the incident to herself and saw it as a metaphor. She was the horse, the gate was her rigid eating habits, and she was the therapy that she needed in order to change.  

It is important to do more research in this type of therapy because it is a different approach that can potentially be beneficial to people with eating and mental health disorders. 

Written by: Vivian Daher 

Rose, K. (2019, March 04). Equine-Assisted Therapy and Implications for Treatment of Eating Disorders. Retrieved from https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/equine-assisted-therapy-and-implications-treatment-eating-disorders