Self-Care Tips&Tools Presents Animal-Assisted Therapy
Bailey Newhouse
Oct 24, 2022
Monday, October 17, Harbinger Student Media released another episode in its Self-Care Tips&Tools Podcast. The podcast, produced and hosted by Stephanie McClaskey, is in its third production season. In episode 7, called Animal-Assisted Therapy, McClaskey talks about Mended Hearts, a horse farm located in Metamora, Ill., and how they use animals in therapy.
“At Mended Hearts, their primary therapy assistants are horses, who provide a safe and comfortable environment for clients to process stress, anxiety, and depression or to work through past trauma,” McClaskey said.
McClaskey discusses the history of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT). She tells how animals were used for therapy in Greece to uplift the spirits of the terminally ill. Belgium began to incorporate it into its culture, rehabilitating both animals and humans together to provide healing properties to each other.
After this phenomenon, AAT became a huge topic in the academic world, as people wanted to figure out why such a strong bond between animals and humans could cause an alleviation from traumatic events and stress for both members.
In the 1800s, Florence Nightingale, a nurse and social reformer observed that animals reduced stress and anxiety in patients of varying ages. This observation started a wave of experiments that studied animal and human interaction and how animals produced calming effects for those suffering from anxiety. These experiments led to the idea of the Human-Animal Bond, which explains how humans need to interact with animals to handle the stresses of everyday life.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that formal experimentation of this theory began with Dr. Boris Livingston. He found that his dog positively affected mentally impaired individuals and that they felt much more comfortable interacting with his dog than with others.
To hear a more in-depth analysis of this topic, listen to the Self-Care Tips&Tools podcast at ICCharbinger.com under the podcast tab or visit Harbingercast on SoundCloud. To volunteer at Mended Hearts or to explore their treatment options, visit their website Mended-Hearts.org.