Animal Assisted Therapy Benefits Everyone!

Animal Assisted Therapy is Green and Helps YOU Too

What You'll Discover Here:

Did you know that you can gain huge benefits from animals?

Pet owners often consider their pets to be a part of their family (I would be lost without my dogs).

Interestingly, pets bring many health benefits to their human family, such as allergy reduction, and teaching responsibility to children.

But let’s look at animal assisted therapy and how it can benefit humans – and why you might consider getting involved.

What is Animal Assisted Therapy?

Animal assisted therapy is also known as pet therapy and animal assisted activities.

We’ve known for a long, long time that animals offer us therapeutic, emotional, psychological,
and physical benefits (phew, that’s a mouthful!).

Animal assisted therapy is where an animal helps humans to improve their well-being, recover from illness or improve a disability. A health care person, trained in animal therapy, will often oversee the process.

And of course, it’s a wonderfully green and eco friendly method!

Animal Assisted Therapy in Hospitals and Consulting Rooms

animal assisted therapy dog hospital patient — Animal assisted therapy in hospitals – volunteers bring pets to cheer patients

You may have seen items on TV or social media showing hospital patients cheering up hugely when a beautiful dog or cat is brought in.

Many patients in hospital take great comfort from an animal – after all, they are removed from their normal home comforts and away from family, and a loving animal brings huge positive emotional benefits.

Petting an animal has been shown to actually lower high blood pressure, which improves health.

Waiting to see a medical practitioner can be stressful. But a small amount of time spent with a
friendly dog or cat in the waiting room can lower stress levels and their associated chemical reactions within the body. When patients are relaxed, stress hormones do not kick in.

Animal assisted therapy is also used in nursing homes, prisons, adult homes, and in many other facilities with much success.

Animal Assisted Therapy Helps with Disabilities

animal assisted therapy for a child with cerebral palsy — Animal assisted therapy for a child with cerebral palsy

Imagine a child who has with difficulty with fine motor skills. Animal assisted therapy can be used to show the child how to attach a leash to a dog, or open a box of treats and feed the dog, for example. It’s so much more enjoyable than just exercises!

Imagine an adolescent with with behavior problems. He can learn to control his anger so that he won’t scare the dog. Animal assisted therapy can also help him to change the way he interacts with his family because he learned new ways to relate to the dog, and his therapist helped him apply those new skills to his family.

A child with autism often opens up and is less withdrawn when animal assisted therapy is used.

Benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy

Animal assisted therapy brings so many benefits – and all without additional medication.

People who engage with a pet:

Show less stress, anxiety, panic, fear, and loneliness
Have better moods and a more positive outlook
Show increased self-esteem
Overcome shyness
Show less aggression
Improve cognitive development and social skills

And in case you think it’s all one-sided, it isn’t! Studies have shown that dogs for example, relax when they’re petted. If they’re stressed, petting and stroking them causes their blood pressure to go down too!

Volunteer!

We already know that volunteering brings as many benefits (if not more) to the volunteer as it does to the people they help.

Related: Volunteer – and have great fun!

Related: Why YOU benefit from volunteering!

And it’s very green and eco friendly to volunteer.

Volunteering to help with animal assisted therapy can be extremely rewarding.

If you have a pet, they will need some training and then you can work with organizations to bring your pet to a health care setting.

Even if you don’t have a pet, many organizations need volunteers who are good with children, animals or hospitals. You could keep patients safe, gather data on visits and help patients meet their treatment goals.

Find out more at Paws 4 Healing

Or type “volunteer animal assisted therapy” and the name of your state, city, area or country into your browser and find out what you can do in your area!

So far I’ve been talking about specific dogs who are brought in to bring joy. But people who are very ill in hospital gain huge benefits from seeing their own pets. Click here for some heartwarming stories and photos

It’s all about Nature

If you think about it, we try to link Nature with people who are ill – we bring plants and flowers to people who are sick in an effort to cheer them.

It can be a natural next step to bring Nature in the form of animals to help people heal.

And that’s what green living is all about – bringing more Nature into our lives.

Have you worked with animals? Do you have examples you’d like to share? Let me know in the Comments below. And please share this worthwhile information – sharing buttons below and right.

Share 0