If you’ve ever felt sad and then cuddled a cute pet, you’ll know how wonderful animals can be in boosting our moods. That’s the main assumption of animal assisted therapy: that our mental, physical, social and emotional health and wellbeing can be improved with the aid of animals. But what is animal assisted therapy and how might it help you?
Animal Assisted Therapy: An Introduction
Animals have been used in therapy for years now. In fact, the earliest reported use of AAT was in the 1940s, when an army officer brought a dog to hospital to comfort injured soldiers. It was so effective that the Yorkshire Terrier cheered up people at the hospital for another 12 years!
AAT can be done with horses (also known as equine-assisted therapy), dogs (also named canine-assisted therapy), rabbits, cats, doplhins and even llamas!
In animal assisted therapy, the patients can play, walk, pet, groom and take care of the animal. There are many places where animal assisted therapy is common place, including schools, mental homes, prisons, hospitals and aged care facilities.
There are both group and one-on-one sessions, depending on the patient’s needs and how the program is delivered.
The Benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy
Due to their patient, non-judgemental nature, animals make the ideal therapy tool. Here’s how they may benefit patients:
- Improve self-control
- Boost balance
- Increase self-confidence
- Lower anxiety and depression, as well as the risk of heart attack or stroke
- Improve trust and teamwork
- Better social skills
Animal assisted therapy can be particularly useful for people who haven’t responded to other forms of treatment. Teenagers and children tend to respond really well to the therapy, as it’s seen as a non-threatrning, subtle treatment.
There are a whole host of conditions that animal assisted therapy can treat, including demntia, heart disease, pain, pshyiatric and behaviour disorders, cancer and addiction. People with autism spectrum disorders may also benefit from animal therapy.
