Lived experiences of parents of children with disabilities engaged in a support group incorporating equines.

BACKGROUND: Parenting a child with disabilities comes with significant challenges to parental quality of life, often resulting in decreased physical, mental, and social health when compared to parents who raise typically developing children.

AIMS: To address the needs of this population a 10-week interdisciplinary support group, based in attachment theory and incorporating equines, was developed called Taking the Reins of Self-care.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Designed to utilize the human-equine bond, the support group facilitated development of self-care strategies to increase quality of life of 6 parents of children with disabilities in the United States OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Qualitative phenomenological analysis of field notes and parent interviews revealed the following themes: confirming the horse as an emotional confidant, creating a safe haven, re-affirming identity, nourishing the emotional self, and meeting the challenge.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Analysis of Taking the Reins of Self-care substantiates the value of complimentary therapeutic approaches, attachment theory and the human-equine bond, and supports further investigation of the benefits of specialized parental support groups to enrich the experience of raising a child with disabilities.