| Summary: | Previous studies exist in using equine-facilitated therapy (EFT) in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), however,
no studies among refugees or asylum seekers were found. This study aimed at describing and analysing a 12-week EFT process
for an asylum seeker girl with PTSD. The polyvagal theory was used as theoretical background, where strengthening the
body-mind’s system for regulating arousal is stressed. The case subject was a 13-year-old girl “Meryam”, born in the Middle
East, who had entered Finland eight months before the EFT process started. No interpreter was used in the process. The
EFT sessions were videotaped and analysed. The methodological approach based on grounded theory. The analyses ended up
forming three main categories of relevant contents involving: 1) anxiety regulation and growing the window of tolerance, 2)
reciprocal expression of needs and desires and increasing of agency, and 3) strengthening the body-mind integration. All of
these increased during the process, observed both in the sessions and in real life. The horse played a crucial role in the process:
it acted as a force of attraction that motivated the patient to stretch her window of tolerance in order to be able to perform
desired actions, such as riding. Both the therapist and the horse need to be competent in offering enough safety for the patient
at all times in the therapeutic triangle. One advantage in using EFT with this target group was the small need for shared
spoken language. This paper contends that EFT can be used with this target group.
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