Heste-assisteret psykoterapi: Et casestudie af heste-assisteret psykoterapi anvendt i forbindelse med lavt selvværd

Gavigan, Maria

4. semester

Psykologi, Kandidat

2010

2010-08-01

79 pages

I denne opgave har der hovedsageligt været fokus på at undersøge forholdet mellem lavt selvværd og heste-assisteret psykoterapi. Der blev taget udgangspunkt i følgende problemformulering: Hvilken betydning kan heste-assisteret psykoterapi have i behandlingen af lavt selvværd, når der tages udgangspunkt i en bestemt type ved navn "Rideterapi"? Til at belyse denne problemformulering, blev der taget udgangspunkt i følgende forskningsspørgsmål: Hvorfor og hvordan kan heste-assisteret psykoterapi virke? - hvilke psykologiske principper kan det bygge på? Hvilken rolle kan hesten spille i terapien? - hvorfor bruge en hest og ikke en hund? Kan lavt selvværd være et særligt oplagt behandlingsemne indenfor denne terapiform? Disse spørgsmål samt den udvalgte teori fungerede som fundamentet i de to interviewguides, som blev brugt i denne empiriske undersøgelse. Forskningsmetoden var to kvalitative interview henholdsvis med en klient, der tidligere modtog heste-assisteret psykoterapi, og den psykolog der udførte terapien. Disse to vinkler blev udvalgt for muligivs at kunne belyse problemformuleringen på en mere nuanceret måde. Eftersom lavt selvværd var det centrale undersøgelsesemne, blev der udvalgt tre hovedteoretikere til teoriafsnittet: 1) Den person der skabte begrebet "selvværd", indenfor psykologien, William James, som så begrebet som værende betinget af kompetencer og succes indenfor specifikke interesseområder, 2) Morris Rosenberg, der inspireret af Cooley og Mead, determinerede selvværdsbegrebet som en bestemt attitude, især overfor selvet, dersvinger mellem værdifuldhed og værdiløshed, samt 3) Susan Hartersom sammenfatter både James og Rosenbergs teorier med et udviklingspsykologisk aspekt. Undersøgelsen førte til følgende konklusion: Der er umiddelbart belæg for at antage, at kombinationen af rideterapi og almindelig samtaleterapi, fik denne klients selvværd til at stige. Hendes selvværd gik tilsyneladende fra et kompetencebaseret selvværd til at være relativt autentisk højt efter endt behandling. Teoretisk set kan dette forstås på en sådan måde, at rideterapien umiddelbart var med til at: 1) øge denne klients kompetencer, 2) give hende succesoplevelser samt 3) give hende en større indre balance, hvilket angiveligt var med til at øge hendes selvværd. Disse tre faktorer understøttes umiddelbart af den inddragede teori fra William James, Morris Rosenberg og Susan Harter. Det virkede endvidere som om, der yderligere var to faktorer, der var med til at øge denne klients selvværd: 4) positiv feedback og 5) en sikker base i form af hesten. Begge disse faktorer kan understøttes teoretisk af Albert Bandura og John Bowlby. I forbindelse med almengørelsen er det tilsyneladende muligt at bygge assertoriske formodninger, på baggrund af disse resultater, som kan bruges i cases med høj sammenlignelighed. Der tages dog forbehold for, at sådanne cases tilsyneladende skal omhandle denne specifikke form for rideterapi. Dette antages grundet den begrebsforvirring, der eksisterer indenfor det overordnede felt, som umiddelbart kan besværliggøre et sammenhold af resultater på tværs af forskellige former for heste-assisteret psykoterapi.

The main focus of this paper has been to examine the relationship bewteen low self-esteem and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), this leading to the creation of the following problem formulation: What role can Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) play in the treatment of low self-esteem, when dealing with a specific type of EAP mentioned as "Riding therapy"? To illuminate the problem formulation the following research questions were created: How and why can Equine Assisted Psychotherapy work on a client – what psychological principles can it be based on? What role can the horse play in the therapy – why not use a dog instead of a horse? Can low self-esteem be an especially suited treatment subject for this type of therapy? Theese questions a long with the chosen theoretical contributions was the base for the interview guides used in the empirical investigation. The research method was a qualitative interview with a client formerly receiving Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and the psychologist practicing the therapy. The two different angles were included hoping to give a varied perspective in accordance to the problem formulation. Seeing low self-esteem was the primary topic of investigation three main theorists were selected for the theoretical section. They were chosen due to the broad theoretical stand and implications they represented: 1) The person who created the term “self-esteem” in psychology, William James, for whom the very concept had to do with competence and success within important areas of life, 2) Morris Rosenberg who influenced by Cooley and Mead determined self-esteem as a specific kind of attitude, particularly towards the self, reflecting either worthiness or worthlessness, and 3) Susan Harter who incorporates both James and Rosenbergs theoretical contributions with developmental psychology. The investigation let me to the following conclusion: This type of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (Riding therapy) combined with classical conversational therapy did apparently increase the self-esteem of this client. The client seemed to have competence based self-esteem before entering the riding therapy treatment, and seemed to have authentic high self-esteem after the therapy. From a theoretical stand it might be suggested, that this kind of therapy contributed to the client experiencing: 1) more competence, 2) succesfull experiences and 3) a higher inner balance, which apparently led to the development of a higher self-esteem. This is theoretically supported by the three main theorists in the paper (James, Rosenberg and Harter). Meanwhile it seems that there are two other factors that apparently led to the client getting a higher self-esteem, that being: 4) positive feedback and 5) a secure base offered by the horse. Both of these factors can be theoretically supported by Albert Bandura and John Bowlby. Finally with regard to the generalization possibilities, from this investigation to other cases, it can be argued that the results of this paper might be used to make assumptions in other cases, as long as they are highly comparable. It also seems likely that investigators trying to compare results have to be dealing with the same kind of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. This argument is based on the confusion surrounding the very definition of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy making it difficult to compare results from one kind of EAP therapy to another.

Equine ; Assisted ; Psychotherapy ; EAP

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