Equine Assisted Mental Health (EAMH) - Undergraduate
Integrating human and nature relationships
EAMH works with horses as partners in educational and therapeutic settings. This field is expanding exponentially as the uniqueness of animal-assisted therapies integrates a non-human component that is filled with potential. The study of Equine Assisted Mental Health is a personally, socially, and ecologically responsible process, fostering an academic environment that encourages students to develop self-awareness and a psychologically sophisticated sense of responsibility within both human and non-human worlds.
This requires the integration of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, and spiritual aspects of the human personality, along with an understanding of systems perspectives. Such an integration often requires a shift in attention beyond modern Western views of humans, horses, and nature.
Equine assisted therapies first emerged as a means for physical rehabilitation in the mid-twentieth century. Since then, many dimensions of human services, including the mental health services, have integrated horses into their modalities. Reevaluation and restructuring of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive patterns come about though the client’s effort, the horse’s connection to the client and co- therapist, and the mental health professional’s facilitation. Ethics of the therapeutic relationship, horsemanship, and stewardship flow throughout this course of study, with emphasis on the systems in relational patterns and the facilitation of therapeutic experiences.
