Therapeutic Effect of Animals

(1) as a psychotherapeutic adjunct (patient interacts with an animal either during or in between therapeutic sessions),

(2) as the sole therapist (patient interacts only with animals and does not receive human counseling/psychotherapy),

(3) as a catalytic agent for change (animal is introduced into the therapeutic intervention at a moment when a patient is primed for psychotherapeutic change), and

(4) as a means of contact with nature, the unconscious, and the universe (patient uses animal to invoke psychiatric breakthrough and/or spiritual experience).

In terms of the effects of each of these purposes, Levinson notes that:

These uses are all seen as interrelated, and it is understood that in all of them, contact comfort is either present or is easily available. (p. 131)

The purpose of this study is to examine the literature on animal therapy with particular emphasis upon the benefits associated with the use of dogs; commonly the dogs utilized in animal therapy interventions are referred to as "therapy dogs".

. . .
by Wilbanks (1989). She noted that results of previous work in the field had suggested that pets may alter people's perception of their environment and even change the way people are perceived by others. To examine this effect, Wilbanks investigated the effects of the presence of a pet in the counselor's office on institutionalized and non-institutionalized adolescents' perception of counselor credibility. In this way, she combined two areas of research: pet therapy and the interpersonal influence model of counseling. Subjects in the study were 142 adolescents from three different settings: a juvenile detention center, a residential care facility, and a public school. At each setting adolescents were randomly assigned to a pet-present or a pet-absent group. They then heard an audiotaped counselor introduction and viewed photographs of four counselors, either with or without a pet dog at the counselors' side. Counselor credibility was measured by the Counselor Rating Form - Short Version. Subjects' attitudes toward pets were also evaluated using the Pet Attitude Scale. Results of analyses performed on pet attitudes data showed that the subjects from the residential care facility had significantly more favorable attitudes
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2486
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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