ABSTRACT
In Natural Lifemanship's trauma-focused equine-assisted psychotherapy (TF-EAP), the authors employ a trauma-informed lens that enables us to address anxiety from a neurobiological perspective. TF-EAP treatment emphasizes the reorganization and integration of the brain to heal trauma and related neurophysiological disorders that affect regulation and relationships. Anxiety disorders are of several types, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and panic attacks, social anxiety, separation anxiety, selective mutism, and specific phobias. Treating anxiety through a trauma lens means the authors seek to understand the neurobiological patterns, which are often adaptive responses to trauma, underlying the anxiety the client experiences. A perhaps even greater ethical concern is that the eustress inherent to mounted work may push the client toward a freeze response, characterized by dissociation, submission, and compliance. The goal of the TF-EAP mounted session is to integrate neural networks in the brain so that the client becomes increasingly able to override anxiety through top-down cognitive strategies, such as mindful breathing and self-calming techniques.
