Drug Abuse and Horse Assisted Therapy Literature Review

Literature Review

As Masini (2010) shows, animal-assisted therapy can be quite useful in helping patients engaging in substance abuse treatment. Masini (2010) highlights the benefits of equine-assisted psychotherapy in particular, as do Hauge, Kvalem, Berget, Enders-Slegers & Braastad (2014), who note that engaging clients with horses can facilitate the perception of having a stronger social support. As social support is a necessary part to overcoming or battling substance abuse, the animal-assisted intervention can be seen as a positive influence (Birtel, Wood & Kempa, 2017; Muela, Balluerka, Amiano, Caldentey & Aliri, 2017).

Animal-assisted therapy can have a positive effect on engagement and retention of individuals in substance abuse treatment. Kelly and Cozzolino (2015), for example, have shown that at-risk youth have been aided by animal-assisted therapy in their attempts to overcome issues of substance abuse. Animal-assisted therapy represents a “goal-oriented adjunct to traditional therapy programs” (Kelly & Cozzolino, 2015, p. 421). The way in which it works is this: the individuals struggling with substance abuse issues, such as self-control, “work through a structured, goal-oriented curriculum with certified therapy dogs and volunteer handlers…[to] complete progressively advanced tasks in which the youths transfer skills learned about dog handling to understanding and modifying their own behavior” (Kelly & Cozzolino, 2015, p. 421). In other words, animal-assisted therapy first focuses the individual’s attention on how to care for and control an animal—and the lessons learned are then applied to the person to help the person how to see to care for him or herself. The idea is that by learning to care for an animal, the person can learn life skills that will allow for a better…

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…abuse disorder to not only complete their therapy but also help them to gain a better control over their own lives, by taking the lessons they learn from the goal-oriented animal-assisted therapy and applying them to their own lives. They learn how to care for animals and how to control them, and this gives them both a sense of empowerment and a sense of knowledge of what it takes to be disciplined not only with animals but also with themselves. By taking a share of ownership over another living thing, they assume an air of responsibility that translates into how they see themselves as dictators of their own experience rather than as passive receivers of unconscious whims and desires. From an Adlerian perspective, animal-assisted therapy makes sense as a practical co-intervention to support overcoming substance abuse.

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