Animal Assisted Therapy History

History of Animal-Assisted Therapy Animal-assisted therapy can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks and when they used horse-assisted therapy to boost the morale of the incurably ill. After that, there is little documentation for the use and effectiveness of it until the 18th century in York Retreat, England. In York Retreat, there was a facility ran by Quakers where people with mental illnesses would roam freely on the ground around the animals. The Quakers began to notice the positive interactions between the patients and the animals and began using the animals as a bridge for communication with them. The animals were ultimately used to teach behavioral management and interaction techniques. As a result of the success that the Quakers had, the technique was adopted by the Germans in Bethel. The …show more content…
This was a monumental moment for the AAT movement because it shed more light on the topic and it was there that Dr. McCulloch stated that animal therapy offers hope.
Benefits of Animal-Assisted Therapy Animal Assisted Therapy has been found to have positive effects in the therapeutic session. Those benefits include, but are not limited to: companionship. The animals presence can serve as a stimulus of communication between the therapist and the client: they can be a calming presence for the client and facilitate more conversation than would normally occur. Therapy is an intense time for people, you are opening up to a stranger in the hopes that they will be able to guide you in the right direction. The animal can make the therapy session less intimidating to the client. In my experience, people can begin to get bored in the therapy session: an hour with a stranger where you tell all your secrets. Having an animal present in the therapy session can reduce that boredom, and create the motivation for the client to move faster in their