ABSTRACT
Studies on equine assisted psychotherapy show promising results. Clients, most often girls and women, clients with post traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, problems with trust, anxiety, and attachement seem to be helped to handle their problems. We still lack knowledge about what the horse contributes to these good results. Some studies suggest that the horses’ contribution to psychotherapy is mainly that their precense creates good conditions for the therapeutic alliance between psychotherapist and client. Other results, rather, point in the direction that the clients’ alliance with the horse is as important – or even more important – than the relationship with the (human) therapist. In my chapter, I argue that psychotherapists’ experiences of horses in equine assisted psychotherapy probably are useful to understand more about horses as subject. I also argue that there are ethical reasons to learn more about the horses in the activity.
