That day, in the late afternoon, it was Kyllian who arrived in her Nike tracksuit, purple from head to toe. The appearance of a 16-year-old teenager, cool, a good face under curly blond hair that somewhat hides his eyes. Slightly nonchalant, the young man from Faulx-les-Tombes is also impatient to experience this pet therapy session in the company of Mélissa Snauwaert, clinical psychology assistant and pet therapist, and her four-legged partner, whom the teenager has already met.
It must be said that the young woman, a pet therapist and dog behaviorist, has everything to put you at ease: kind, gentle, smiling, she is “too happy“to see the young man who is currently placed by the judge in a home.”If you agree, we’ll get startedsuggests Mélissa Kyllian, who agrees, takes off her sneakers and immediately sits down to be at… dog height. Today I wanted us to talk about feelings. Do you agree?“The young one is not opposite. Tiloup expresses himself in his own way and in his own way.”Do you think she is hungry? Shall we give him a bite?“.
Contact is established between the animal and the young. Meanwhile, Mélissa has fitted her dog with an intervention coat on which images illustrating emotions are “scratched”. The game is called “Physical Sensations Cards”. The founder of Anim’Moi – a company that offers pet therapy and animal-assisted activities – suggests that Kyllian, among all those attached to Tiloup’s back and sides, draw the four emotions he is found in more specifically. Kneeling, the teenager takes his time making the choice. He chooses “to have a knot in my stomach”, “to have a lump in my throat”, “to make my heart beat like a drum” and “to have a rush in my heart”. One by one, each box then becomes the subject of analysis and interpretation. “Why a knot in the stomach?“, Melissa asks.”Because that’s what I felt before I came here, I was a little stressed“.
And it is no coincidence that Kyllian chose this box, the one who came here precisely for a problem with stress management and self-esteem. After a short discussion on the topic, the zootherapist continues with the following card: “Do you remember the last time your heart beat like a drum?“.”Yes, that’s when I met my boyfriend“, smiles the young man who “plays the game” and gives himself in full confidence to his zootherapist, who does not fail to “thank him for his sharing”. Other exercises will always follow in the presence of Tiloup, whose participation is proven. more or less active, depending on circumstances and needs.
Animals to relieve suffering: discovering pet therapy
The animal is seen as a colleague
“Pet therapy is animal-assisted therapyexplains Mélissa Snauwaert. It is an intervention method. In the same way as an occupational therapist, a physiotherapist, a speech therapist, a psychologist, a neuropsychologist, a nurse, a social worker, a specialized pedagogue,… we will work in our respective field, with the training we already have. , with our patients or our clients, but by adding the animal in our interventions and in our ways of intervening. There is systematic 3. In pet therapy, the animal is really seen as a colleague, a real intervention partner and certainly not seen as a tool. It creates a link between the therapist and the patient. The therapist’s role at this point will be to nurture this bond between the 3 participants. This is called triangular synergy.“.
And in fact, that is exactly what is happening before our eyes. When the clinical psychological assistant and zootherapist this time invites his young patient to identify, among several suggestions, the 5 essential needs in his eyes, the young person ranks in order of importance the needs to be trusted, to be listened to, to be loved, love and let go. At the foot of the two protagonists, Tiloup appears more passive, but seems to be listening. Regardless, he is a calming, non-judgmental presence. In the third exercise, the female dog’s participation becomes more active. It is up to each of the three actors to take 30 seconds in the yoga pose shown on the side of the die that has just been rolled. In this case, the abs are for the teenager whose mission will be to keep Tiloup in the position closest to the one whose destiny has determined.
The opportunity to ask ourselves how we train animals in zootherapy. “The answer I often give is that it’s not so much about educating as it is about desensitizingcorrects Mélissa Snauwaert. In our profession, we also talk about desensitization. We will have to get to know the animals we want to work with, their needs, their limits and their function. We will then pick and choose them according to what we want to bring to pet therapy.“. An example?”It would be to think that when we want to receive pet therapy, we want to pet the animal so that it is in contact with people. So we don’t have to look for an animal that is super scared and hates physical contact with a human because it makes it panic and the animal will be in a state of stress. We always and above all want to respect the animal’s well-being and respect its needs, wishes and boundaries.“.
Kyllian understood that well. As the female Australian shepherd pretends to rest, we let her. If she expresses her desire to participate, she is included in the process. Would you like some food? She receives it immediately. Dialogue is established between the three.
A hospital where pets are welcome
To be integrated into the therapeutic care
“The special feature of animal therapy is that it can be integrated into the care plan and in the interdisciplinary team.explains the general practitioner. For example, a speech therapist who practices pet therapy is therefore a speech therapist and pet therapist at the same time. The idea will actually be that, in the same way as a more traditional ‘logo’, it can be part of the external stakeholders who are around the child, the young person or the adult to help them in their well-being. She will therefore be contacted and invited to the discussion table, to the consultations, she will be able to share what she is working with“.
Pet therapy should be seen as a long-term intervention. The zootherapist will write a zootherapeutic intervention plan and define short-, medium- and long-term goals and then make evaluations and reassessments of the goals depending on the child’s progress and what needs to be done. He or she will select the animal and build the session with games, with tools, with equipment, in which the animal will be integrated at all times and always with the aim of meeting the targeted therapeutic goals.
As for who this approach is for, “Overall, animal therapy can appeal to anyone, whether it is people who have anxiety, stress, depression, psychological challenges, intellectual disabilities or an autism spectrum disorder.lists, among others, Mélissa Snauwaert. The main real contraindication would be that the person does not like animals. Allergy would potentially be another contraindication“.
The animal is a real mirror
So how can pet therapy make a difference in a therapeutic process? “What we observe a lot, for example with children or adolescents who present conduct disorders or oppositional disorders, is that this oppositional mechanism disappears completely or almost, by the simple presence of the ‘animal,’ illustrates the therapist. There is also the fact that the animal is a real mirror and reflects many things. For some people who sometimes struggle with social codes, social skills, having to learn to read an animal is much more concrete and it’s much easier. There aren’t as many detours as when you’re facing another human being, so it’s much less confrontational, it’s more real, more fair.”
“You should also know that the presence of the animal immediately activates our emotional brain, which is the limbic brain, Melissa completes. We are in the feelings, the memories, our experiences and it is very concrete. We observe less of the need to be in a more defensive state, a form of protection, and so this really opens the doors to therapeutic work. The animal and the presence of the animal is a real game-changer. A rather traditional speech therapist who sees progress in her patient when she works with language disorders, for example. If she trains in pet therapy and brings her animal to a session and imagines it around the animal, we see that progress is much faster with much greater motivation. The results are incredible. I also stress the importance of pet therapy being a real profession. There should therefore be an obligation to train by choosing quality training, with values that respect animals at all times. It’s super important“.
To Kyllian the last words: “I feel de-stressed. It was so good!“. Mission accomplished.
“As soon as I started doing artistic activities again, I felt better”: For Ricardo, visiting the museum is therapeutic
To learn more about pet therapy
On September 22, “Zootherapy”, The animal, a revolution in care, will be published in bookstores (ed. Guy Trédaniel, €19.90). This work, written by Audrey Desrosiers and Mélissa Snauwaert, takes us into the wonderful world of animal therapy. Story of discovering how a rabbit, a puppy, a horse or even an alpaca can become true healing agents. After a 15-year career exploring the various possibilities offered by pet therapy, in this book Audrey Desrosiers addresses the research and astonishing breakthroughs in this field. She also recounts the setbacks as well as the moments of grace that her work has had. In her very personal style, she presents various effective and original zootherapeutic tools, while giving an overview of their positive effects on general health: better expression of emotions, reduction of tension, improvement of physical condition, among other benefits.
Whether it is aimed at people with behavioral disorders, suffering from dementia or suffering from Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, about newcomers, young people with language delays, university students suffering from performance anxiety, pet therapy is increasingly used in institutions (schools, hospitals , etc.).
Special recipes for well-being
To relieve or even treat certain ailments, including mental disorders, combat stress, overcome depression or burnout, some doctors prescribe complementary, valuable, if not beneficial, therapeutic approaches.
In this summer series, after “Museum recipes” and pet therapy, comes “Nature recipes”.
