Equine-Facilitated Group Work for Women Survivors of Interpersonal Violence

Equine-Facilitated Therapy and Trauma: Current Knowledge, Future Needs

“…Some of the studies in this review touched upon this. For example, Schroeder and Stroud (2015) reported that group members remarked that the calm dispositions of the horses provided safety in relationship with their horse. Moreover, increased effective interactions with other group members and the group facilitators were observed.…”

“…Historical trauma experienced by American Indians and other groups is often overlooked in the trauma literature, but youth who participated in a multi-component intervention that included EFT showed improvement in cultural identity, coping strategies, quality of life and social adjustment (Goodkind et al, 2012). Of the five studies with samples of adults, one included veterans (Nevins et al, 2012) two included women who had experienced interpersonal violence (Schroeder & Stroud, 2015;Shambo et al, 2010), and one included men and women with various traumatic events (Earles et al, 2015). Improvement was found in PTSD symptoms, mindfulness, depression, dissociative symptoms, anxiety, and depression.…”

“…Studies are presented in order of rigor (in terms of control for threats to internal validity) of the studies, from least (qualitative) to most rigorous (group comparison design). Table 1 shows that standardized assessment or outcome for trauma was not included in the study by Schroeder and Stroud (2015). However, all the women were recruited from a domestic violence organization, in collaboration with their mental health services coordinator, and an inclusion criterion was the presence of PTSD symptoms.…”

“…The qualitative study (Schroeder & Stroud, 2015) and one of the intervention studies (Shambo et al, 2010) addressed interpersonal violence (IPV) with female-only groups. Schroder and Stroud (2015) developed an 18-hour, 2 hours per session, mindfulness-and CBT-based here-and-now intervention for women with posttraumatic symptoms and a history of IPV.…”

Examining Human-Horse Interaction by Means of Affect Recognition via Physiological Signals

“…Kendall et al [8] suggest that this offers a secure setting in which people, in particular those with disabilities, can establish trust. To this end, equine-assisted therapy has found many applications, such as the treatment of both children and adults with PTSD [13], [14], depression, internalising and externalising behaviour [15], as well as the treatment of adults combat trauma [16]. Other studies have been conducted for specific purposes, such as treating children with autism depending on the measurement of brain activity [17], while the measurement of heart rate has also been exploited in order to evaluate the interaction between human and horses [18].…”