Equine Assisted Therapy Essay

Equine Assisted Therapy: The Importance of Equine Assisted Therapy in the Treatment of Addictions

Nowadays medical science progress rapidly and at the present moment medicine can really save human lives in cases where there was no hope in the past. At the same time, it is necessary to underline that, unfortunately, the progress of medical science is accompanied by the growing complexity of human life and new problems constantly arise. In this respect it is worthy of mention that one of the most serious problems of the modern world is the problem of addictions which became a grave burden of the modern society. In fact, nowadays addictions in a way affect a substantial part of society and it does not necessarily mean that addiction is the problem of addicts solely. In stark contrast, any sort of addictions affects not only the individual who suffers directly from this problem but also his/her social environment and society at large.

Ironically, to a significant extent, the problem of addictions is engendered by the development of social life and its growing complexity that creates extremely stressful environment many people want to escape from and gradually become addicts of some harmful habits such as alcohol or drug use. At the same time, often they are simply unable to solve the problem of their addiction independently without the assistance of specialists and members of their families. This is why it is extremely important that the treatment of addictions was consciously perceived by the addict and supported by his family, social surrounding, and specialists working in social and health care services.

However, the traditional methods of treatments, including the use of medicaments in the treatment of addictions, are not always effective. This is why the implementation of new ways and methods of treatment had become of a paramount importance as the number of people suffering from different sorts of addictions constantly grew. This problem was particularly important in the late 1960s-1970s and this is exactly the period when the new therapy got started to be implemented and this was Equine Assisted Therapy. To put it more precisely Equine Assisted Therapy emerged in 1970s and it was closely associated with the experiential therapy movement popular in that epoch.

Basically, this was a kind of alternative to traditional talking therapies and was rather focused on non-verbal communication and its positive impact on treatment of patients with addictions. The development and growing popularity of this therapy was based on the belief that Equine Assisted Therapy can really help people with addictions to learn and practice essential life skills during this experiential therapy. Basically, this therapy was developed in response to the widely spread belief that people who are susceptible to addictions and have a baseline of unresolved historic trauma creating an unbearable level of anxiety that led to self-medication with alcohol, drugs, food, sex, and other behaviors. At the present moment, Equine Assisted Therapy is quite popular and is considered to be quite effective in treatment patients with addictions.