Open Access A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) with Children and Adolescents

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature on Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) with children and adolescents. Methods used in EFP, including traditional mounted, vaulting, husbandry, and unmounted ac-tivities are described. The theory and background of EFP is summarized with references to various psychotherapeutic per-spectives, such as Freudian, Jungian, cognitive, behaviorist, and psychodynamic models. The status of the research is dis-cussed, and available empirical studies and reports on this topic are summarized. Possible applications to patients with eating disorders, anxiety, trauma history, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and delin-quency are described. Recommendations are made regarding the direction of future research on EFP