A qualitative study of 20 people with anxiety, depression or exhaustion disorder describes how they experienced a 24-week farm-based programme with horses and nature as a bodily, sensory process of recovery. It offers OTs a framework for understanding embodied recovery, not evidence the programme works.
The core concept emerging from the data was 'a process of embodied recovery': participants described recovery as a deeply bodily, sensory process in which positive interactions with nature, horses, other animals and staff in a safe environment allowed them to internalise experiences into their bodies and minds and carry them into daily life.
Three interrelated concepts were theorised from seven categories: Experiencing interconnection (being met with low demands, acceptance and kindness in a supportive environment), Processing inner connection (lowering one's guard, using all senses, feeling one's own emotions), and Feeling intra-connected (integrating self and body as a whole, then bringing new strategies into everyday life).
Participants contrasted the NBI with their previous treatments, describing the farm programme as working 'body-up' through senses and the whole body, in contrast to the talk-based and medication-focused interventions they had previously received, which they characterised as working mainly 'head-down'.
Single-blind randomized controlled trial. Sixty-four participants were randomized across two intervention arms and assessed at twelve weeks for the primary outcome…
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Summarised by AI from the abstract, not the full paper. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →