Equine-Assisted Sandtray Therapy: A Proposed Model Incorporating Gestalt Sandtray Play Therapy Techniques

This thesis establishes a conceptual framework for combining Violet Oaklander’s model of Gestalt sandtray play therapy and equine-assisted mental health in a proposed equine-assisted sandtray therapy intervention for adolescent girls with emotional and behavioral problems. A review of the history and theory of both modalities draws on the works of innovators and leaders in these therapeutic fields. Heuristic and artistic-creative methodologies are employed to explore the effectiveness of the human animal bond in meeting the distinct needs of children. The author’s experience of healing and individuation via equine-assisted therapy provides validation of the effectiveness of the modality. The proposed model of equine-assisted therapy incorporating sandtray therapy principles is demonstrated using Oaklander’s technique of projection in the author’s reallife creation of a sandtray scenario in a round pen, with an equine as co-facilitator providing an imaginal narrative of the process of a sandtray session.