Certified Professional Practitioner for AAPT®
​
​
Animal Assisted Therapy, AAT, differs from animal assisted activities, such as PAT dogs and visitation programmes, which are also extremely valuable but do not have the requirement that they be delivered by a trained mental health professional. As the benefits of working with animals become clearer, other types of schemes are becoming increasingly common such as assistance and facility dogs. It is important that animal assisted therapy is delivered by a professional trained and registered in their field of mental health AND trained in animal assisted therapy, with animal welfare, choice and agency at the heart of the work.
​
Catherine specialises in offering supervision in Animal Assisted Therapy. She has extensive training and is an accredited practitioner, and is also a Clinical Supervisor and guest lecturer for the Masters in Animal Assisted Counselling and Psychotherapy. Catherine can support you on your journey in AAT from preparation to integrating animals into your clinical practice and beyond - please get in touch to chat more! Additional training and ongoing supervision in this modality is vital to be able to practice ethically, legally and responsibly - therapists would not dream of 'doing some EMDR' for instance without the requisite training or supervision and AAT is no different - it is not simply taking your dog to work with you! There is a lot of work currently being undertaken to improve regulation in the AAT field (see here). ​​​
Animal Assisted Therapy is a goal directed intervention in which an animal, meeting specific criteria, is an integral part of the treatment process. AAT is delivered and/or directed by health or human service providers working within the scope of their profession. It is designed to promote improvement in human physical, social, emotional, or cognitive function. AAT is provided in a variety of settings, and may be group or individual in nature. The process is documented and evaluated.
How can AAT be helpful? Animals, alongside a qualified therapist, can help teach empathy and appropriate interpersonal skills; The relationship between therapy animals and the therapist can be a model for a healthy relationship; The presence of animals can be soothing and grounding and can help facilitate the therapeutic relationship between clients and therapists. Some therapy animals may have natural skills that allow them able to pick up social cues imperative to human relationships. Therapists then can process that information and use it to help clients see how their behaviour affects others. Interacting with animals has been demonstrated to lower blood pressure, anxiety and stress. Research shows AAT for Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (e.g. Autism) exhibited a more playful mood, were more focused, and were more aware of their social environments when in the presence of a therapy dog. (Martin & Farnum, 2015 Western Journal of Nursing Research)
