CV’s Animal Assistance Therapy Program Produces Results

By Avril Lindsay, CSW

Social Worker, The Louis Jackson Crisis Residence

I’ll never forget the day I watched Carlos, a boy who rarely spoke to anyone, talking to Jaguar, one of our Therapy Dogs outside my office.  Carlos just stretched out on the floor, faced the dog nose-to-nose, and started a conversation.  “You must be feeling sad that you won’t get to see your family at Christmas,” he began.  “But the social workers and other people here love you, and they’ll make it fun for you.  You’ll see.”  Before my eyes, this little boy worked out his disappointment that he would not be going home for Christmas.

Since the Animal Assisted therapy program began at CV last year, many other boys have taken important steps toward healing by first talking to our therapy dogs.  Because boys often feel more comfortable when a dog is present, they lower their guards much more quickly.  Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) can frequently accelerate the therapeutic process and produce remarkable results in a very short time. 

Will was a boy who had totally lost trust in the system.  “Just read my chart,” he’d say when he came to our therapy sessions.  Will’s previous social worker told him he was going upstate to summer camp, when he was really on his way to CV.  There was no way he would talk to another social worker.  Because he seemed to have a keen interest in Jaguar, the Animal Assistance dog I work with, I decided to bring her into the session, and encourage him to play with her. 

Jag amazed him. When he told her to sit or stay, she obeyed.  He felt like no one had heard or listened to him before.  He began to place Jag between himself and me, almost as a barrier, and started talking about the kind morning Jag was having.  In the following sessions, Will sat with her head on his lap, stroked her head, and began talking about how he felt about being away from his family and not being able to make friends.

He spent the next few months working on his family issues through Jag’s extended family on campus, learning about peer relations and social cues by identifying the dog’s needs, and eventually verbalizing that Jag “liked him no matter what.”  Within two months, Will had made so much progress that he moved successfully from the Crisis Residence to a cottage on the CV campus. 

From the beginning, the program has been a success. We noted that attendance in group increased on the day of “dog group” in Crisis Residence, and residents were more likely to stay in group longer. During this process, we also noted that the kids began to talk about issues that they would not bring up without the dog present. The statement, “People in my neighborhood are mean to dogs and beat them sometimes” leads to a full discussion about what it is like to be abused or feel unloved. When assistance dog Jaguar was in heat, I presided over one of the most candid sex education discussions I’ve had in a long time.

Given that most of the dogs on campus, including the therapy dogs are related, animal assistance therapy has enabled family exploration in groups. In one situation, I had a kid in group verbally threaten the dog. This lead to a lengthy discussion about why I did not react. I watched and trusted my therapy partner’s (the dog) reaction. She was not scared, worried or intimidated, and actually responded to the child with affection. How do you really know when things are safe?  Why would people say mean or threatening things that they have no intention of carrying out?  The questions and ideas for discussion are endless. They are also less personal than they are usually about the dog. People usually like to talk about dogs.

Many kids view “talk” therapy negatively and can be resistant.  Having the dog present breaks down barriers much more quickly, and leads to discussions about things that can be toxic topics much more smoothly in most cases. In the Louis Jackson Crisis Residence, where length of stay is much shorter than others due to the nature of the program, this benefit is immeasurable.

Animal Assistance therapy is an exciting and innovative area in our field that only recently is receiving the respect and attention it deserves. It is truly a pleasure to be working with so many of my colleges here at CV to develop and run the program. As long as the tails keep wagging, the kids keep smiling!

Avril Lindsay is a social worker in the Louis Jackson Crisis Residence.  Ms. Lindsay helped develop, and co-chairs the Animal Assistance program at The Children’s Village. She recently conducted a workshop with Dr. Carlos Kymissis, CV Chief Psychiatrist, on the uses of Animal- assisted therapy in adolescent groups at the American Group Psychotherapy Association’s annual meeting in New York City, and has provided in-service training workshops on the topic for other agencies, and has collaborated with experts in this field nationwide.