Amy Johnson

Tortoises are slow and steady, each step made with great intention. Not too dissimilar to the counseling process. For Catheryn Robinson, that’s a good thing.

Robinson was a school counselor for 13 years, working with students in grades K-12 with physical and emotional problems. As a way to help reach the children who were teen moms with eating disorders, youth struggling with depression and those at risk of academic failure, Robinson was urged by her principal to bring in her three young infant tortoises. She had found a male and female desert tortoise wandering the city streets of California and was not able to release them into the wild, so she obtained permits from the Department of Fish and Game and cared for them.

The three turtles lived in a terrarium on a table next to her desk. Many students stopped to visit the turtles before heading to their classes each day ¬ holding them, flipping them over and stroking their ‘bellies.’ Robinson shares a couple of stories of how her tortoises helped her reach students and clients in need.

“I had a little third grade girl with a very serious illness. She was so ill most of the time that she didn’t want to leave the house. Once the tortoises began coming to the sessions, her mom said she couldn’t wait to get to school. She would come and sit on the floor, and the 3 babies would crawl around her, and she would laugh and pick them up and stroke them. Her mom said she hadn’t laughed for many months. Eventually, she had to move away to be near a large hospital back east. I sent pictures of the 3 babies with her that she said would always be with her.

Then there was the 16 year old student who had a baby. Her parents, despite her objections, made her give the baby up for adoption. She came into the office a few days after giving up her baby and was hysterically crying. I got one of the tortoises and put it in her hand. She stopped crying, looked at me, and said “thank you so much,” and proceeded to stroke the tortoise, who nestled into her warm hand.”
Also similar to the counseling process, turtles (and tortoises) require a gentle approach. “If you want play with a turtle, you can’t get it to come out of its shell by prodding and poking it with a stick. Be gentle not harsh, hard or forceful” (anonymous).

In these instances of animal assisted activities, the tortoises were able to provide a sense of novelty and fun which the brain loves, build a relationship between the student and clinician and offer opportunities to focus on the care and needs of another living being — allowing for greater therapeutic healing.

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Amy Johnson

Like their peers, youth who are charged with sex crimes are reported to have limited social skills which can lead to poor peer relationships and social isolation, feelings of poor self worth, low self efficacy, inability to take another person’s perspective and a lack of empathy. They also have significant deficits in social competence and difficulty establishing and maintaining peer relationships. These deficient social skills, poor peer relationships and social isolation contribute to the difficulties presented in these juveniles.

For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) posit that interventions addressing these deficits rather than focusing on the offense alone are critical for the rehabilitation. Treatment interventions that focus on enhancing skill deficits (such as impulse control and peer relations), anger management and fostering empathy appear to be beneficial.

I’d like to focus on the empathy piece and how using animal assisted therapy, specifically with rescue dogs, can foster that in this population. Youth who are able to experience empathy, theorists argue and research supports, inhibit antisocial behavior towards others. Because many delinquent behaviors stem from a lack of empathy, a boost in empathy levels not only takes the adolescent out of his small, self-centered world, but allows him better understanding of his own feelings and feelings of others.

Following this logic, adolescents are able to grow and expand their worlds to include others and their feelings. Empathy cannot be taught…it must be experienced. Without empathy, at-risk youth are more likely to engage in risky behaviors without regard to the feelings of others…including the injuring of animals or peers.

Animal assisted therapy can be an effective intervention when used as an adjunct to treatment. Special emphasis is placed on the development of empathy through interactions with dog. An understanding of animal behavior and positive attachment relationships are the basis for empathy development.

In our program, we work with behaviorally challenged, unwanted shelter dogs and have found that it absolutely evokes and cultivates empathic feelings as well as improves impulse control, manages anger and fosters necessary pro-social skills. By providing a safe, judgment-free environment working with dogs, youth often seen as “bad” are given an opportunity to demonstrate (and receive) unconditional love as well as accomplish something “good” and selfless.

More importantly, using the dogs can help break down barriers that clinicians often face with this population. These barriers are often exacerbated by the fact that many clients do not willingly seek counseling and through program mandates have to meet regularly with the staff therapist. Many times, the adolescents witness how facilitators interact with the dogs and make assumptions that the clinician will show them the same kindness.

Through the use of the dogs, it also provides an opportunity for the clinician to speak to the youth about appropriate forms of touch and recognize when the feedback from the dog is positive or negative so the youth can modify his behaviors during their interaction. On the other hand…or paw…the youth who are typically starved for affection are able to hug and cuddle with the dogs and release some of the necessary, cortisol-reducing oxytocin (the attachment hormone).

The youth in this dog program want to participate and make efforts to monitor and control their behavior with their staff and peers in order to continue. Oftentimes, the positive reactions of staff and peers to the youth’s modifications help further encourage change. Through this experiential form of therapy with youth with sexual offense charges, empathy is acquired and nurtured in a happy, fun and positive way.

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Amy Johnson

In my last blog, I shared a little about the plight of shelter dogs — one shelter dog in particular. Nia has been living in a narrow wire kennel run for at least four months. Despite living in confined quarters with limited human contact and almost non-existent mental or emotional stimulation, Nia stays in seemingly satisfactory spirits.

Using a dog like Nia with at-risk or adjudicated adolescents can help reach them at a level that may not be achieved or one that would take a long time to achieve. We recently began working with a group of ten teenage girls from a court referred residential placement facility at the dog shelter. Each girl works with a partner and the duo train one of the shelter dogs using positive training techniques while also learning about body language and behaviors in dogs twice a week for six weeks. The benefits for the five dogs, including Nia, who will go through the program are priceless, but I don’t imagine you’re reading this to hear about strengthening the psyche of canines. The benefits for the troubled teens, however, are also invaluable.

Whether we’re working with boys or girls, the young trainers consistently make parallels between themselves and their dogs. What is so effective about these parallels is that it helps the youth see their behaviors or traits with more objectivity. If a trainer sees herself as stubborn, for example, and the dog with whom she is working is stubborn, it not only allows her to see her own behaviors objectively, from a more concrete perspective; but it is also a powerful demonstration of behavior modification. When the dog’s behavior is positively corrected, it provides an opportunity to see that ‘change’ is possible and how to make that change. If a dog has been abused and exhibits timid and insecure behaviors, the teen can recognize not only how her behavior might look, but once she works on building the confidence of the dog, she can generalize that to her own confidence building beliefs…both subconsciously and consciously. Because the youth are naturally drawn to specific dogs through the traits and values they share, the partnership provides a built-in sense of hope, strength and resiliency.

As therapists, we could certainly talk about these constructs. We could use a variety of counseling theories and modalities that might be quite effective, but here is where we often find ourselves on the periphery of healing. The bonding with the dog ensures that the healing is happening right then and there, both emotionally and neurologically. Utilizing dogs harnesses the emotional connection between the youth and their dogs. Applying neuroscience principles, we know that the experiences, memories and cognitions associated with strong emotions are the ones that are better remembered and repeated (or avoided). The girls who squeal with excitement as they move with swiftness to begin working with, hugging and kissing their dogs are marinating in emotion -which is initiating healing – in the girls and dogs like Nia, which is the essence of therapy.

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Amy Johnson

There is nothing warm and cozy about her room. It’s just three feet by five feet of hard, thin strands of interlocking steel. Overhead, the long, yellow fluorescent lights buzz incessantly like annoying mosquitoes. There is nothing to buffer the non-stop barks and echoes that follow. The disinfectants and bleach vapors burn her strong olfactory systems.

Nia is not a puppy –which almost everyone wants, she is not a particularly pretty dog, but very sweet, and she tends to be a little hyperactive. Because of this, she has sat in the shelter for four months with no adoption prospects. That’s 120 days staring at the same cinder block wall; 2,880 hours of lying on the uncomfortable wire tray without the distraction of a toy or something to chew; and 172,800 minutes hoping that each human who walks past her kennel will take her outside and far away from her kennel run.

Given her situation, how can she still be a ‘happy’ dog? Here is where some will argue – Nia can’t be happy, she is just a dog. Just a dog. Dr. Patricia McConnell posits in her book, For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend, that before we can determine if dogs share human emotion or feelings, we must identify what an emotion is. While complex, every emotion includes these three things:
1) Physiology (changes in body, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, sweat)
2) Changes in expression (facial and body; eyebrows raise, mouth tightens, body stiffens)
3) Thoughts that go along with the feelings (“I may fail,” “she doesn’t like me”)

While our thoughts are different from dogs, we can observe that dogs demonstrate these components of emotion just as humans do. The basic emotions (fear, anger and happiness) are primal and are shared among both species. Anger provides the charge to protect ourselves or others. Fear arises when our safety or survival is ‘threatened’ and our brains have to determine whether we ‘freeze, fight or flight.” Happiness and love are cousins – and, as social beings, we are both hard wired to crave love and belonging.

All of this makes sense as to ponder why so many of us feel so connected to dogs and why dogs can help us physically, emotionally and therapeutically. Yet curiously, millions of dogs are sentenced to shelters every year. Nia still sits in the county pound…waiting….wanting a warm bed and someone to love her. Dogs like Nia are excellent candidates to work with troubled youth who often feel unwanted, share similar emotions, are “locked up” like Nia and have behavioral challenges that impede upon their ability to be successful in homes and in the community. In my next blog, I will discuss how shelter dogs can be helpful in therapy. Thanks for reading.

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Amy Johnson

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
-Albert Schweitzer

Happy belated birthday to Albert Schweitzer (14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965), humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner (1952). Schweitzer was ahead of his time, his words and beliefs still, more than a century later, continue to remind us that a “cherished life” extends beyond human beings. The beauty of Schweitzer’s value system was that he believed that all life, regardless of how seemingly insignificant, is still life. This revelation came early to Schweitzer when, as a youth, and despite his apprehension, he accompanied a friend to shoot birds with rocks and a slingshot. There they saw small sparrows sharing their melodies. As young Albert reluctantly readied his slingshot, the local church bells suddenly rang out. He took this as a sign; the sparrows were not perched on the tree limb for his entertainment, but were rather magnificent manifestations of life.

Schweitzer rejected the idea of “anthropocentrism” – the notion that humans are the center of life on earth – believing instead that life forms are only ‘different’, rather than hierarchical. While in Equatorial Africa, the phrase “Reverence for Life” came to him, which he made a tenet of his ethical schema.

Working as a therapist, what struck me most in his writings was this quote from Civilization and Ethics: “reverence for life does not allow the scholar to live for his science alone…it does not permit the artist to exist only for his art…it refuses to let the business man imagine that he fulfills all legitimate demands…it demands from all that they should sacrifice a portion of their own lives for others.”

As counselors, ‘sacrificing a portion of our lives for others’ often comes naturally. Is it enough, however, to limit that to the human species? By honoring all life, we are nurturing empathy. When we see a distressed animal, for example, rather than dismiss it outright, and instead contemplate their plight with compassion and desire to help in some way? This continuous awareness and compassion would become firm in our foundation. “Reverence for life” creates a system of values making relationships exclusively with humans incomplete. Schweitzer adds to this thought, “We are brothers and sisters to all living things and owe them the same care and respect we wish for ourselves.”

Finally, respecting animals allows us to broaden our scope of practice to include the use of other species in therapy sessions. For many of our clients, animals provide a safe environment for clients to practice unconditional love, compassion and empathy which can later be used to more intuitively use their theory of mind. This topic is often debated and I would love to hear from you, as counselors, your thoughts on this subject.

I leave you with this quote from the birthday boy:

“A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellowmen, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.” (Out of My Life and Thought, p. 188.)

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Amy Johnson

I would like to continue with the second Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) tenet used to help individuals create new positive neural pathways; developing new ways of thinking and being.To recap, these tenets are love, touch, relationships and experiential learning. Todays message is on the power of touch in AAT.

Touch is the largest sensory pathway and can be a powerful means of providing support and soothing stress. Human touch connects to the core of the social brain and conveys emotional warmth. Of course, physical contact exposes an individual to vulnerability so touch is only effective once trust is secure. Contact with companion animals can provide the impression of a safe environment as well as a non-invasive opportunity to hug and pet a living, loving being. This contact can create some of the same neurological effects by activating the affiliative centers in the brain (Brendtro, 2009).

Research shows that the act of petting a dog lowers cortisol levels, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, triglyceride and cholesterol levels (Coakley, 2009) as well as reduces anxiety and inhibition levels, allowing clients to share more with the counselor. Cortisol, a stress hormone, hypes up the brain when stressed, oxytocin, in turn, calms the brain.

It is the skin to skin contact (whether human to human or human to companion animal) that releases oxytocin, the hormone associated with attachment; which is such a struggle for so many of our clients. Oxytocin promotes social bonding and allows individuals to let their guards down and ultimately trust the therapist. In other words, if a client is feeling unsure or hesitant about treatment, it will take longer to establish therapeutic rapport, stalling progress. Having a friendly dog in the room to interact with can expedite this process. Dogs are emotionally available and oftentimes place paws on the legs of clients, inviting them to encircle them and cry into their fur.

For many clients, touch is taboo. For example, clients with an abuse history or when working with adolescents or those in detention, touching is not typically acceptable, leaving them starved for needed physical contact. There are youth who will intentionally become aggressors so that they can be physically managed by staff and thus receiving that powerful skin to skin connection. Having a dog can fill that void. Additionally, when working with juvenile sex offenders, we can use the dogs as an opportunity to talk about appropriate touching. The youth with whom we work frequently comment that once they can hug their dog, all of their worries fade.

The power of touch is more than just comfort. For so many, it is recognizing that one is a person and matterseven if it is to a dog.

Brendtro, L., Mitchell, M. & McCall, H. (2009). Deep Brain Learning: Pathways to Potential with Challenging Youth. Albion, MI. Starr Commonwealth.
Coakley, A. B. & Mahoney, E. K. (2009). Creating a therapeutic and healing environment with a pet therapy program. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 15, 141-146. doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2009.05.004

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Amy Johnson

“Although humans inherit a biological bias that permits them to feel anger, jealousy, selfishness, envy and to be rude, aggressive or violent, they inherit an even stronger biological bias for kindness, compassion, cooperation, love and nurture – especially towards those in need.” – Jerome Kagan

In my last blog, I gave an overview of the Animal Assisted Therapy tenets that are used to help individuals create new positive neural pathways. These tenets lead to new ways of thinking and being and include 1) love 2) touch, 3) relationships and 4) experiential learning. I’d like to address these tenets individually over the next few weeks, beginning today with love.

Regardless of your theoretical framework for practicing therapy, the need to love and be loved is transtheoretical. “Love ” is tantamount to positive emotional health and overall well-being. The need to feel valued by others (and for youth, feeling valued by adults in particular) is an innate trait. In fact, for youth, an attachment to adults is a “prerequisite to learning from them.”1

Love encompasses feelings of closeness and genuine appreciation and concern. Love leads to attachment, which fosters a sense of stability and safety. While as therapists it is not appropriate to “love” or “attach” to our clients (and vice versa), these same constructs apply on some level to establishing therapeutic rapport. Carl Rogers uses the terms unconditional positive regard, empathy and genuineness. A large research study was conducted that evaluated the dozens of theories and techniques utilized by clinicians and found that it was the element of rapport and feeling heard and understood that made the difference in treatment for those wanting change. For many, having a dog in the room expedites that relationship building process.

Many dogs have an uncanny ability to demonstrate unconditional positive regard, genuineness and a perceived empathy. (The debate is still open as to whether dogs actually feel empathy or if they are merely responding to our non-verbals.) Social animals such as horses, dogs and even rats are the most responsive to human affection Interaction with animals is remarkable because they do not have to love us, respond to us or interact with us, but they do. Even the dogs benefit from the interaction. Physiological studies on shelter dogs have found that they respond positively when interacting with humans.

Animals / dogs do not only love the easy-to-love, but they are able to reach through rough exteriors and love the harder to love. This allows those who are receiving the unconditional love to feel special. This might be the first time many clients have experienced unconditional love. Not only do the clients receive the love from the co-therapists, but they are able to practice loving in return. For those who have attachment issues or strong fears of rejection, utilizing a dog, rabbit, rat or cat to perform gestures of love safely and perhaps discover that the experience is not as painful or scary as they may have perceived it would be.

The animal assisted therapy research has determined repeatedly that the loving bonds between humans and animals create attachments which are beneficial for achieving therapeutic gains. This makes many animals good co-therapists. The biological need for love and attunement is passed from human to human or human to animal by smiling, holding, moving toward and touching one another. In our dog program, our troubled youth have the opportunity to help rescue dogs in need. This is another opportunity to express (and practice) love and affection safely. In the words of Lao Tzu, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

1 Brendtro, L., Mitchell, M. & McCall, H. (2009). Deep Brain Learning: Pathways to Potential with Challenging Youth. Albion, MI. Starr Commonwealth.

2 Kruger, K. & Serpell, J. (2006). Animal-assisted interventions in mental health: Definitions and theoretical foundations. Handbook on Animal Assisted Therapy: Theoretical foundations and guidelines for practice. Second Edition. Elsevier. Pp. 29-30

Amy Johnson

“We now assume that when psychotherapy results in symptom reduction or experiential change, the brain has, in some way, been altered” (Cozolino).

In the wake of the 1990s “Decade of the Brain,” much of the resulting counseling research suggests moving away from the sole use of talk therapy towards integrating sensory based interventions…particularly with individuals who have experienced trauma, abuse or neglect. The brain’s neural plasticity means that past behavior doesn’t have to dictate current behavior. Neural plasticity is reached at the sensory (mid-brain) level which indicates that alternative modalities may need to be used as an adjunct to talk therapy.

The mid-brain houses emotionality, connection and other sensory perceptions. When you have a highly emotional client in the midst of a crisis or perceived crisis, expecting him to use logic and reason to make appropriate decisions in that moment is futile. Instead, reaching out to that client at a sensory level (through movement, rhythm, art, music, etc.) helps him to regulate his emotions so that he can engage cognitively and linguistically.

Animal assisted therapy can help create new positive neural pathways through a few of its basic tenets including 1) love and attunement, 2) touch, 3) relationships and 4) experiential learning. In the interest of space, I’ll just give a basic overview of how these tenets can penetrate the mid-brain and will go over them more in depth over the next few weeks. First, love and belonging is a basic need for everyone. Dogs have an uncanny ability to share unconditional love regardless of age, appearance or past. Being in the presence of such love allows the client to feel safe and less inhibited, allowing for deeper exploration and growth potential. The second aspect of touch is vital for human existence. Clients, particularly those in residential placement, prisons, hospitals or who are just alone and are not able to experience physical contact often have higher levels of depression or sadness. The skin-to-skin contact releases oxytocin which is the hormone for social bonding. Whereas cortisol hypes up the brain when stressed, oxytocin calms the brain. When released during positive social interactions, oxytocin permits expressions of vulnerable behaviors. Third, relationships with the dogs (or other animal) allow clients to “practice” their relationships with humans.

We had a young adjudicated female in our animal assisted therapy program who said, after 6 weeks with her dog, “this is the first relationship I’ve ever had and you know, it wasn’t that bad.” Finally, social skills and empathy need to be experienced, not just explained. The clients / participants need to feel the behavior and experience the emotions that go along with helping or connecting to another living being. These elements allow the mid-brain areas which have been adversely affected by trauma to begin to heal, allowing new neuronal pathways to be generated moving up toward the cortex (problem solving, linguistic) areas. This is what allows the person to enhance self regulation abilities as well as decrease fear, anxiety and anger related disorders – the most common disabilities leading anyone to seek counseling.

Cozolino, L. (2002). The neuroscience of psychotherapy: Building and rebuilding the human brain. W.W. Norton Publishing. New York, NY.