Animal Assisted Psychotherapy (AAP)

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Animal Assisted Psychotherapy (AAP)

• Dr. Peter Claydon
• Licensed Clinical Psychologist
• Animal Hugger

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Outline

• Historical Antecedents
• Contemporary Perspectives
• Benefits and Limitations of AAP
• Examples and Descriptions of Canine and Equine
  Assisted Psychotherapy

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Historical Antecedents Animal Assisted Therapy

• 9th c Belgium disabled patients farm animals
• 1792 Quakers in York, England psychiatric
  in-patients birds and rabbits
• 1860 Florence Nightingale, Notes on Nursing the
  sick/invalids small pets/bird in a cage
• Late 19th c Germany epilepsy birds, dogs,
  cats and horses
• Early 20th c US, Secretary of the Interior,
  Franklin Lane psychiatric patients dogs
• Early 20th c Sigmund Freud psychiatric patients
  dog Jo-Fi
• End of WWII, Army Air Corps Convalescent Center
  New York

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Serendipitous Discovery in the 1960s

• Boris Levinson, MD 9 yr old patient dog
  Jingles the birth of animal assisted
  psychotherapy (Pet Therapy)
• OSU Psychiatric Hospital, Drs. Corsen Corsen
  socialization skill development of adult and
  adolescent inpatients dogs

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Contemporary Research

• Barker Dawson (1998) institutionalized
  patients and anxiety dogs
• Barak et al. (2001) elderly patients with
  schizophrenia dogs and cats
• Kovacs et al. (2004) middle-aged patients with
  schizophrenia small animals
• Cobaleda-Kegler (2006) female juvenile offenders
  cats
• Limitations no comparison groups

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Trotter, Chandler, Goodwin-Bond and Casey (2008)

• A Comparative Study of the Efficacy of Group
  Equine Assisted Counseling with At Risk Children
  and Adolescents
• Group 1 Equine Assisted Counseling (EAC)
• Group 2 school-based group counseling (Kids
  Connection)
• Results showed EAC superior to school counseling
  on all measures
• Limitations.

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Benefits of AAP

1. Symptom reduction, e.g. Depression Anxiety
   Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder
   Conduct Disorders Substance Abuse Body Image
   Disorders Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
   Schizophrenias Autism Spectrum Disorders
2. Functional improvement in areas such as
   self-esteem social and relational abilities
   learning (e.g. memory, problem solving, decision
   making)

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Limitations of AAP

1. Not suitable for all patient populations, e.g.
   severe Anti Social Personality Disorder certain
   psychotic states serious dementia or brain
   damage
2. Some animals may not be suited for AAP

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Accrediting Certification

• PET PARTNERS (formerly The Delta Society), est.
  mid-1970s ltdeltasociety.orggt
• EFMHA, Equine Facilitated Mental Health
  Association, a subsidiary of PATH International
  Professional Association of Therapeutic
  Horsemanship International, est. 1969 (formerly
  NARHA) ltpathintl.orggt
• EAGALA, Equine Assisted Growth and Learning
  Association, est. 1999 lteagala.orggt
• CBEIP, Certification Board for Equine Interaction
  Professionals, circa 2010 ltcbeip.orggt

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Local Equine Assisted Therapy Programs

• H.E.A.R.T.S Adaptive Riding Program (Santa
  Barbara)
• Windhorse Equine Assisted Therapy Center (Santa
  Ynez Valley)
• Reins of H.O.P.E. (Ojai)

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HEARTS Therapeutic Equestrian Center

• www.heartsadaptiveriding.org
• Accredited by PATH International

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Windhorse Equine Assisted Therapy Center

• Formerly Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding
  Program
• www.syvtherapeuticriding.org

• H.E.L.P. - Horse Enlightened Learning and
  Psychotherapy

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Reins of H.O.P.E.

• reinsofhope-ojai.org
• Executive Director Julie Sardonia, M.A.,
  L.M.F.T.

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Local Canine Assisted Therapy

• Child Abuse Listening and Mediation (CALM)
  calm4kids.org
• Pilot Program, principal investigator Brenda
  Murrow, PhD candidate bmurrow_at_calm4kids.org

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My Therapy Dog, Pixie