Benefits For Therapeutic Patients With Aat ( Animal Assisted Therapy

Animal Assisted Therapy also known as animal-assisted therapy has been formally introduced to the world in the last ten years or so. Although animals have always been a place of comfort for a lot of people, scientists just began to realize the impact animals have on society. The world has begun to experiment with what animals can do to benefit human health. The most common type of animal-assisted therapy is equine-assisted therapy. Equines are horses. Equine-assisted therapy 's impact on minors who have mental health issues have led to a successful new type of therapy that includes multiple benefits. Equine-assisted therapy has worked well in is treating adolescents and children how to communicate and connect with others. Two big issues that animal-assisted therapy has been known to help is Autism and kids with attachment and social problems.

In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.

For centuries people have known that animal companionship has brought many benefits to people’s lives. According to Kathryn Heimlich, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the first known time a companion animal was used to aid in a therapy program was “York Retreat in England, an establishment founded by the Quakers for persons with mental illness” (Heimlich, 2001, p. 48). As stated by Heimlich, the first published reports of the benefits of animal-assisted therapy come from Psychologist Boris Levinson. Levinson “discovered that he could reach a disturbed child during therapy

Questions arise concerning the treatment of therapy dogs when visiting patients and whether animal-assisted therapy really works at all; however, those who disagree aren’t looking at the big picture. Animal-assisted therapy is both an ethical and effective therapy method due to its success in treating those with chronic diseases, disorders, and managing stress and anxiety. The varieties of cases regarding the success of therapy dog treatments far surmount the amount of cases saying otherwise. Animal-assisted therapy stems from the human-animal connection, one of the most unique and powerful bonds man has ever experienced. It is that connection that allows animal assisted therapy to be a critical part of everyone’s daily

Animal assisted therapy includes all psychological theories and incorporates animals, such as dogs or horses, into a therapeutic treatment plan. It is used to enhance and complement traditional therapy methods, but it is not done by itself. Animal assisted therapy has been effectively used in individuals with autism, medical conditions, and trauma survivors. It may also be implemented for people with psychological disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and addiction. Depending on the type of therapy and the type of animal involved, you may keep the therapy animal at home and with you throughout the day for emotional support, or you might learn to ride and care for a therapy horse that is kept at an equestrian facility. Afterwards, you

Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT), which can be provided in a group or individual settings, is designed to promote improvement in a human’s physical, social, emotional, or cognitive function. An article by Chitic,

Through the current study, O’Haire, McKenzie, McCune, and Slaughter (2013) examined the integration of animals into the classroom to find if this improves the social functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The authors define animal-assisted activity (AAA) as “activities with animals that provide opportunities for motivational, educational, recreational, and/or therapeutic benefits without the presence of specified treatment goals or objectives” (O’Haire, McKenzie, McCune, & Slaughter, 2013, p. 163). Previous research has focused on animal-assisted therapy (AAT), which is a guided intervention led by a trained professional. It is important to study AAA because this does not have to be led by a trained professional and

Through this introductory course into Animal Assisted Therapy, I have learned about the Human-Animal Bond, the history of AAT and AAA, the five freedoms, the differences between AAT and AAA, and the various populations in which this therapy responds greatly to. This paper gives a detailed and comprehensive overview of what I have learned from this course and my own perception of how I will incorporate things learned from this course into my everyday life and into my future career in AAT.

In “My Story”, Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson says, “Animals kept me going. I spent every waking minute that I didn’t have to be studying or going to school with those horses.” This proves that animals help humans with disorders because the horses helped an autistic girl not have that many emotional problems when people picked on her for her autism. In “My Story”,Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson says, “It’s hard to imagine today, a school keeping a stable of emotionally disturbed and dangerous horses for its underage students to ride.” This proves that it would have been hard to deal with her emotional behaviors without an animal by her side. In conclusion, animals help people with disorders and emotional

Therapy does not always mean sitting in an office talking to a psychologist. Sometimes it could mean someone going to a dentist appointment with a dog by his or her side or even riding a horse. Animal assisted therapy is treatment focusing on relationships between humans and other animals, and the human-animal bond in clinical and social settings (Giaquinto, 595). Although it has been proven to provide a handful of benefits to different types of people, incorporating animal therapy in public facilities continues to be debated (Ward, 198). Throughout the years, different types of programs have come about to specialize to certain people or groups (Kršková, 51). Animal assisted therapy is a growing subject that can provide major health advantages

Animal assisted therapy is based upon biophilia hypothesis. This basically states the relationship between animals and humans long ago. Because humans sometimes depended on animals for survival, when we see an animal rest, it signals the human that they too can be calm and rest. Due to this hypothesis based therapy, animals who simply rest upon the patient’s beds, give the individual a will to

Animal assisted therapy: an innovative way of treating mental illnesses and a future for medicine or a mythological healing practice performed by our ancestors? The therapeutic potential and spiritual qualities of animals have long been recognized. The practice comes from the belief that animals have supernatural powers and already 2000 years ago Hippocrates noted that horse riding stimulated the functions of the body and alleviated disease. Florence Nightingale was one of the first people to advocate the benefits of companion animals for the chronically sick and there is now evidence that animals stimulate hormones crucial to the wellbeing of a person. Could spending time with your pet within your

Researchers have found animal-assisted therapy to be useful for certain individuals through pilot studies (e.g. Chu et al., 2009; Kovacs et al., 2004; Nathans-Barel et al., 2005). One of the reasons for this may be due to the human-animal bond discussed by Brown (2004), who explains that the reason for a human-animal bond is potentially due to viewing the animal as a ‘selfobject’. Although we are not searching for reasons why animal-assisted therapy is effective for patients with schizophrenia, it is useful to keep in mind why animal-assisted therapy may be effective. Interacting with animals weekly is beneficial for patients with schizophrenia who are institutionalized (Chu et al., 2009; Kovacs et al., 2004). However, these studies did not examine whether actually owning a pet is as beneficial for an individual with schizophrenia, and if this is more beneficial for individuals with a lower severity of symptoms or with a higher severity of symptoms. The human-animal bond due to viewing the animal as a ‘selfobject’ (Brown, 2004) should mean that actually owning an animal rather than interacting with it once a week would be more beneficial. However, owning a pet could be stressful for some individuals, especially those who have lower functioning skills. I predict, however, that the increased human-animal bond will override any potential negative effects of

Throughout human history, “animals have occupied a central position in theories concerning the ontology and treatment of sickness and disease” (Serpell 16). Animals have played a major role in the lives of humans in ways that have affected our entire being and survival. Countless amounts of people, animals, and time have been put into bringing AAT all over the world; as a result, five other countries have adopted this form of therapy. The volunteers and workers of Animal Assisted Therapy have pushed to bring an exciting new therapy to children and adults all around.

The unique aspect for pet owners is that owning a pet is an emotion-focused coping strategy within itself. According to the Mayo Clinic (2015), animal-assisted therapy is a growing field in which pets are used to help people recover from or better cope with health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, and mental health disorders. Animal-assisted therapy provides trained animals that wholeheartedly interact with patients with no hidden agenda (Dogtime, 2015). Their purpose is to serve as a companion for the patients, as well as act as a gateway to allow the patient to slowly build his or her own self-esteem and communication skills once more. Furthermore, human’s innate behavior in releasing endorphins, as a result of petting an animal, benefits