Safety, Trust, and Connection With Horses: Adults’ Lived Experience of Group Equine‐Assisted Psychotherapy in Substance Use Treatment

ABSTRACT

Talk‐based interventions are the standard of care in substance use residential treatment, yet little is known about how adults experience alternative approaches like equine‐assisted psychotherapy (EAP). This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored how 12 adults experienced group EAP sessions during residential substance use treatment at three facilities in the United States, and what meaning the experience held in their overall recovery journeys. Analysis of semistructured interviews yielded six themes: nervous system regulation, authentic connection, present‐moment awareness, experiential learning, transcendent meaning, and transformed perception of treatment. Participants’ accounts described two facets of the horse–human encounter: experience in the arena (reset, relief, practice) and meaning in recovery (acceptance, hope, freedom). Participants’ lived experience suggested that EAP engaged preverbal, somatic, and relational dimensions of the recovery process. Implications for clinical practice, EAP practitioner training, and treatment program design are considered.