Calling

HUMAN/ANIMAL CONNECTION

THE has been evolving for 15,000 years. Over 90 million homes have pets; we need each other! Pets depend on owners for basic care, while owners’ needs are more complex. There are working relationships, protection, service, companionship, and now a therapeutic aspect.

Animal Assisted Therapy is an intentional therapeutic modality based on the interaction between patients, animals, and clinicians. Animals are trained and help communicate the client’s needs to the counselors even if the client is unable to. Dogs are the most common therapy animal. In 1860, Florence Nightingale observed the benefits dogs offered sick patients, and in 1930 Sigmund Freud observed and noted shifts in patients’ moods when his dog was present. In 1980, researchers started documenting the interaction between patients with depression, trauma, autism, and hyperactivity disorders. Imperative to the process is the underlying comfort or "relief feeling" patients experience with a dog.

Horses are the second most common therapy animal. Interactions with horses can be experienced through riding or ground-based sessions. Mental Health with Horses offers ground-based counseling. Riding and horsemanship are beneficial yet can obscure a horse’s natural and unbiased responses to the client’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It is this authentic interaction with the clients that unlocks the true impact of working with horses.

A variety of animals constitute therapeutic settings. Cats, rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, even llamas and hedgehogs are being offered locally in animal assisted therapies. The overarching “goal” being to help alleviate symptoms from various challenges, which is achieved through the human/animal connection. Different animals have different effects but ultimately the results are similar—with several bio-medical and psychological effects.

Animal Assisted Therapy embodies the compassionate, straightforward soul of animals to empower and to address behaviors, emotional blocks, mental anguish, and anxieties.

We should all continue to “Stomp the Stigma” around mental health, hold hard conversations, and seek alternative therapies. The possibilities are endless. Differing models are ever evolving with data being compiled to validate and reinforce subsequent benefits. w

Katie Stankiewicz is the CEO of Willow Equine and the executive director of Soul to Soles Connection. Katie brings the authentic healing power of horses to civilian and military clients through ground-based counseling and personal development. For more information, visit www.Willow-Equine.com or www.s2sConnection.org or call 704.237.0644.