ArticleInternational journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being2016
Contribution of the patient-horse relationship to substance use disorder treatment: Patients' experiences.
Article in International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Complementary horse-assisted therapy for substance use disorders: a randomized controlled trial.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2020Trial
- Therapists' reasons for including horses into psychotherapy, a qualitative study.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Article
- Cognitive and physiological impacts of psychotherapy incorporating human-equine interactions during substance withdrawal: A scoping review.Journal of equine rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Exploring In-Session Engagement in Equine-Assisted Services for Children and Youth Experiencing Disability: A Scoping Review.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2024Article
- An Exploratory Study into the Backgrounds and Perspectives of Equine-Assisted Service Practitioners.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- An evaluation of the effect of equine-facilitated psychotherapy on patients with substance use disorders.PloS one · 2023Article
- Equine-assisted services for individuals with substance use disorders: a scoping review.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2022Article
- Relatives' experiences of an equine-assisted intervention for people with psychotic disorders.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2022Article
- The Effect of Contact with a Horse During a Three-day Hippotherapy Session on Physiotherapy Students' Emotions.Psychology research and behavior management · 2022Article
- The Efficacy of Dog Assisted Therapy in Detained Drug Users: A Pilot Study in an Italian Attenuated Custody Institute.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
- More Than Just a Break from Treatment: How Substance Use Disorder Patients Experience the Stable Environment in Horse-Assisted Therapy.Substance abuse : research and treatment · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA good therapeutic relationship is a strong predictor of successful treatment in addiction and other psychological illness. Recent studies of horse-assisted therapy (HAT) have drawn attention to the importance of the client's relationship to the horse in psychotherapy. Few have reported on the patient's own perspective and none have reported specifically on the human-horse relationship in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and its implications for health and well-being.
aimThis article explores SUD patients' own experience of their relationship with the horse and their perceptions of its contribution to their therapy.
methodsAs part of a large mixed-method study of HAT in SUD treatment, we used semi-structured interviews of eight patients to gather information about their experiences of HAT. From the data obtained, the relationship with the horse was found to be a significant part of participants' HAT experience. It is therefore the subject of the current phenomenological study, in which thematic analysis was used to investigate how the participants constructed the reality of their relationship with the horse(s) and their perceptions of the consequences of that reality in SUD treatment.
resultsParticipants' own descriptions suggest that the horses were facilitators of a positive self-construct and provided important emotional support during treatment. Analysis found relationship with the horse, emotional effect, and mastery to be important and interrelated themes. The findings were interpreted within an attachment theory context.
conclusionThe results appear to be consistent with key addiction treatment theories and with findings in HAT theoretical and empirical studies. They add to our understanding of the impact of HAT on SUD treatment. However, further research is needed into both the construct validity of the patient-horse therapeutic relationship and the possible variance within and between different populations.
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