Animals: An Analysis Of Therapeutic Animal Experiences

Introduction: Animals have long been held as therapeutically unrivaled in the minds of some people, yet I have seen little scientific evidence as to why this is true. I have seen the effects of animals in the lives of others, and I have most certainly had therapeutic animal experiences myself, yet nobody seems to be able to explain it. For 2 ½ years, I worked as the Equine Program Director of a newly formed therapeutic riding program for children and teens. Our focus group was those who were either adopted, in the foster care system, or in a kinship scenario. Repeatedly, I saw MAJOR improvements in so many vast areas of the kids that I was working with, even though I was taking a similar approach with all of them. I saw one child that dramatically …show more content…
that utilize horses (namely mustangs and retired racehorses) as a part of their program. Some of them viewed the animals as a “prison industry” type program, while others saw it as a highly rehabilitative kind of work that was built on trust. The programs not only taught the inmates to do constructive work that they could continue after they were outside the walls, but also taught them a lot about themselves and how to manage and regulate their emotions. You see, horses are just like mirrors that show you how you look and feel at any given moment, even when you don’t know how you feel. If you come into the ring upset and tense, the horse will present anxious and distracted. However, if you come in with your mind quieted, the horse will suddenly be focused and prepared to learn. It really does teach one a lot about respect, and that knowledge can easily be applied to the real world. Straight from the mouths of the inmates themselves, this method really is …show more content…
These are considered “at-risk” individuals. Again, another approach is taken within the therapy session as well…. This study uses the Parelli Natural Horsemanship method during the 10 weekly sessions, combined with some psychotherapy tools and assessments to help the youth connect the program with their everyday lives. Each week the youth were asked to pick a word from a list of 31 words that represented something they learned in their session and that they would work on prior to the next session. Something that I found fascinating was that at the beginning of the program, they were choosing words that focused on working collaboratively and interpersonal sensitivity, but as they moved throughout the program, they chose ones that represented personal stability, and then moved on to words that represented personal growth and other complex