Animal Assisted Therapy

Animal Assisted Therapy involves a specifically trained animal (in this case Zumi - a fluffy white Japanese Spitz) within the therapeutic treatment approach and plan. Training in this case is of high importance to ensure that an animal is appropriate and manageable within the therapy experience. A therapist will use the dog as an additional approach to use with other therapy approaches (see these links (MHOT, Psychologically informed approaches). This means that this will look different within each therapy session and will depend upon goals identified by the client and therapist and the therapist’s therapeutic focus and creativity. 

 

How will this look if I see Keira and Zumi?

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Keira will work with you to decide in what way you would like Zumi to be involved in your session.

 

Some ways that Zumi might interact within our session include:

• Supports engagement for children and adults who might be nervous about engaging in therapy - Zumi tends to add a new dimension or experience to the therapy experience which makes it easier to come along to that first session

• Providing sensory calming and management of arousal within the therapy space

• Providing distraction and time away from distress during sessions

• Mindfulness, grounding, and relaxation activities with Zumi

• Going for walks (providing movement for self-regulation) - this is also great for those who are less comfortable with face-to-face therapy situations or who have a more active way of engaging or focusing (for example highly anxious clients, clients with autism and ADHD)

• Providing opportunities for psychoeducation when observing Zumi’s interactions and responses within the therapy session

• Social skills development - we often notice how Zumi responds to our interactions, body language, tone and volume, behaviour in session. We can then use this as a time to notice, problem-solve and reapproach him in an adjusted way. This can then be generalised to other social situations and experiences depending on the client.

• Emotional awareness building - we can observe Zumi’s body language and reactions within a session - for example when he looks nervous following a surprise (eg loud noise). We recognise his body, theorise what he might be thinking and notice his behaviour. We can also take the opportunity to notice how Zumi calms himself and to interact with him to help him calm down as well. This often provides opportunities to explore a client’s own emotional experiences, notice how they feel within their body, how they behave in response to this, and how they might like to calm themselves.

• Confidence building strategies

• Understanding and implementing co-regulation

• Building emotional regulation skills

Zumi helps make therapy fun - I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again here as I’m a big believer that if we enjoy something we are better engaged, and therefore are better able to learn and integrate the things that we experience and learn within the therapeutic experience!