Imagine you were referred to a therapist whose name is Buttons
Chris laying on Buttons
Would you expect qualified healing from her? Would you expect to get to the core of your issues? You probably wouldn’t take Buttons seriously, but in fact Buttons is helping many children and youth, many who have been labelled “hard to reach”, to talk about their pain and heal emotionally from past traumas. Buttons, along with her colleagues, Rain, Echo, Moonshine, Thorpuppy, Axel, Bob and others, are the “co-therapists” of the Dreamcatchers Farm. Dreamcatchers is a nature-assisted therapeutic farm outside of Edmonton Alberta. Two SALI volunteers, Chris Mayworm and Jan Emsley attended a 4-day training in June to learn more about animal-assisted therapy and how the lessons learned might benefit the planning of SALI’s Farm.
Four-days of training covered theory, research, credentialing, ethics, safety, assessment and treatment. We were also given time to synthesize the new knowledge to figure out how we might incorporate this into our practice. The training was led by Eileen Bona M.Ed. who is a Registered Psychologist and Behaviour Management Specialist and the founder of Dreamcatcher Farm. Eileen is leading a national committee that is developing standards and guidelines for Animal-Assisted Therapy here in Canada.
Chris with Buttons
Lessons learned for SALI:
• There is a distinction made between animal-assisted therapy(AAT) and animal-assisted activity (AAA). AAT utilizes professionals trained in their field of practice. If the goal is to work with physical/motor development, the professional needs to be a physical therapist. If psychological, a mental health professional. Oftentimes there is cross training between the animal-trained professional and the therapeutic professional. SALI’s intended use of volunteers to work with at-risk children will be considered animal assisted activities. But since SALI’s goal is improved mental health, then it is important that training of volunteers be comprehensive and that SALI links with the professionals in the mental health field.
Catching Llamas
• Animals must be chosen carefully for this work. Not every animal will be suited to this work. All the Dreamcatcher animals have been rescued or have special needs in some way, except one who was bred to be a gift. Numerous animals had to be given back because they did not work well with the herd and posed a risk to the clients. This training addressed the criteria to look for when assessing animal whether an animal is suitable for the work.
• Animals can be powerful motivators. Animals keep you in the here and now. Animals ‘force’ you to face your challenges. When used appropriately, animal-assisted therapy can be a faster, more effective form of therapy for children who have failed traditional methods. Working with animals forces the therapist to be real and genuine and attend to the non-verbal.
Jan and Bob
• Because animals are sensitive to the human condition, when used with clients in pain, they need time to “debrief.” Debriefing gives the animal a break and allows them to release the negative energy they absorbed. Having a variety of animals allows for some to take a break. A variety of animals also allows you to be more selective, or the client more selective on the animal to use for a particular goal.
Dreamcatchers Classroom
Jan and Chris are both considering building a mental health practice that incorporates animals. This training was a tremendous starting point for that. Likewise, this training gave us good information to share with SALI as programming for the farm begins. You can check out more about Dreamcatchers by checking out their website at www.dreamcatcherassociation.com