What Can Dogs Teach Us in Therapy?
Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) offers many potential benefits to clients during sessions. While some may initially think of these benefits as being emotional, offering clients support and comfort during therapy, they extend far beyond having a furry, cuddly friend in the therapy room. Dogs actually embody several key concepts in therapy that we can apply to our lives and use to support our mental and emotional growth.
Dogs Can Teach Us Emotional Regulation
Dogs feel a wide range of emotions just like people do. They become angry and frustrated when their needs or wants are not met. They feel sadness and loneliness when their humans are not around. And they feel extreme joy, excitement, and glee when spending time with their family and participating in their favorite activities.
Dogs also have the capacity to learn how to manage their emotions. Through training and support, they learn how to avoid lashing out in anger, using self-regulating techniques to stay calm and quiet when they feel frustrated. In the same way, we can learn to regulate our emotions, take time to breathe, think before we speak and act, and use mindfulness techniques to stay calm and grounded.
Dogs Can Model Effective Communication
If you have been around a dog for more than a few minutes, you know that dogs are excellent communicators, even though they cannot speak English. They use facial expressions, body language, and barks to communicate with their owners.
In the same way, humans can use nonverbal communication to express their needs and feelings even when they aren’t sure how to put them into words. Dogs show us that our body language matters and conveys our internal thoughts and emotions. We can learn to read others’ body language and improve our social skills accordingly.
Dogs Can Encourage Us To Open Up
Being vulnerable is an important step in forming meaningful relationships with others, but breaking down our walls isn’t easy. Dogs teach us that being vulnerable will only help people love us more. They encourage us to open up in therapy and to the people we love and, in doing so, build trust through our vulnerable interactions.
When dogs love and trust their humans, they enter the most vulnerable state they can: lying on their backs, bellies up, completely unguarded from potential danger. We can also learn to trust our loved ones when we are opening up to them.
Dogs Show Us Unconditional Support and Love
Dogs love their owners no matter what. They show us that true love is unconditional, not based on what we do or who we are. Having a dog in the therapy room is an excellent model of unconditional love and support, showing us that we are deserving of the same love.
Try Animal-Assisted Therapy With Unleashed Counseling
Dogs can teach us numerous important concepts in therapy that we can apply to our lives and our self-work journeys. Are you interested in trying animal-assisted therapy? Schedule an intake with Unleashed Counseling online today.