Animal Assisted Therapy

Coming in the (hopefully) not too distant future…

I have an ambition to introduce Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) to my practice, after undertaking training in AAT in 2021 before returning to New Zealand.

Animal Assisted Therapy is goal-directed. The animal participating in AAT is used to help achieve one or more specific goals the client is working towards.

This is distinct from Animal Assisted Interaction (or activities: AAA) where the presence of the animal, and interaction between the animal and client is the primary objective.

AAA has no goal other than motivation, engagement and general well-being that may be achieved through interacting with an animal.

In AAT the animal becomes a specific ‘actor’ within the therapy session and helps the client in achieving their goals (for example, if we were teaching Makaton sign to a child, the animal could be the focal point of the child’s signing – asking it to ‘sit’, ‘come’, ‘stay’ etc – thereby learning the sign system through doing and additionally learning how to make a communicative exchange through signing to an animal that will then do as instructed.

Obviously, therefore AAT requires the animal to have specific training and certain temperament. Which takes time to:

1. Identify the right animal
2. Train the animal.

My search for a suitable canine companion begins at the beginning of 2025. Once identified, they will require around a year’s worth of training before they are able to put their skills to use.

What this space for updates!