Animal-assisted therapy finds favour with special needs kids, stressed adults

Anushka’s friend is a rescued cat attending to her on animal-assisted therapy sessions carried out at Direct- Child Development Institute in Nungambakkam. Animals including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and birds play an effective catalyst in the healing process and comfort one while relieving children of stress through the release of the happy hormones, claim experts.

Anjana Thampy, an animal-assisted psychotherapist, at Direct, explains, “It can work for children for a number of issues like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental delay and even bullying, and for adults.” Similarly, Shilpa Raghavan, an animal assisted therapist and psychologist, who recently started Tales with Tails 269, has had sessions with adults for stimulating their creativity, after they de-stressed a lot.

She adds, “They had a warm up session, a main activity and a cooling down activity as part of the programme and when assisted by dogs, they can really open up and express themselves better.” Shilpa took her practical sessions in therapy at Saraswathi Kendra Learning Centre and completed a course from Pennsylvania, launched her own initiative, almost five months ago.

Anjana, who underwent training under the animal-assisted therapy programme of Colorado-AATPC, explains that the sessions are tailor-made for the children. She says, “Mostly, children don’t know it is a session and the process is quite subtle. They can call it animal time or whatever. If it is a child with developmental delay, they have activities like pulling the dog by the leash or having a tug of war with the pet or throwing a ball at them.” She adds that the adults are more aware of the process and there is no particular structure for every session. “I put the clients in the centre and work around them based on their needs,” she says.

So, what makes pets comforting and therapeutic, except the fact that they are adorable and endearing? Shilpa, who is trying to get a course started for animal assisted therapy, says, “Animals don’t judge; neither do they evaluate your appearance nor behave differently based on that. They are reassuring and comforting.” Shilpa who has applied the therapy on children with dyslexia and dyscalculia says that when they read out to animals, they can be assured that they won’t be corrected for the mistakes, that makes the therapy easier.

The experts say that there is a broad range of application and even as it is restricted to a few animals, there can be a whole lot of them. Shilpa adds, “From pot-bellied pigs to rats, even goats and hens are used in the US for this purpose.” In Chennai, however, where the practise is gaining momentum, there is a lot more to explore.

Says Anjana, “I think it is also because people in our country stigmatise mental health and have a lot of preconceived notions about animals—like believing they are disease carriers, etc. In fact, when initiated into therapy, I have seen many warm up to them, though they express their inhibitions about their child coping with it earlier.”

Dr R Sokkalingam, veterinary officer, Society For The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), vouches for the impact the bond between animals and humans have. “I have personally seen a man with mental ailments being absolutely caring towards a dog and being comforted by it, though he had no inkling about his parents’ presence in his life. Similarly, there are instances when cats extend support to the aged. These can be extended to offer therapy at personal levels,” he adds.

But, the fundamental for the therapy sessions is a solid foundation of therapeutic understanding, says Anjana. “That is most important before you bring in the animals. The sessions can extend from six months to a year. And sometimes they come with resistance. Three months down the line, they reflect after being thrown into the process.”