Mangaluru: A workshop on “Animal Assisted Therapy” (AAT) was organised at Anirvedha, a resource centre for psychological wellbeing located in Kankanady, in association with the Paws and Hooves Project from Wag-Ville Bengaluru, Animal Care Trust (ACT) and the Mangaluru Horse Riding Academy on Saturday, April 27.
AAT includes animals in their intervention to bring about the therapeutic change especially for children with special needs. It has shown improved overall emotional wellbeing, better stress coping, enhanced self-worth and socialisation skills in special needs children and other clinical population. Though AAT is popular abroad, it is less known in our country hence, Anirvedha took the initiative to organise a workshop on the same.
Inaugurating the workshop, veteran psychiatrist from KSHEMA, Dr Shishir Kumar informed about the benefits of animal-assisted therapy. He said, “People depend on animals and they in turn depend on human beings for survival. We should be loyal to them as they trust us. There is an emotional connect between humans and animals. They also have a special sense of predicting future danger and can benefit human beings in many ways. They can help solve psychological problems such as stress, depression, anger, anxiety and pain among others. However, there is no structured format on how to handle them.”
Subhadra Cherukuri of Wag-Ville, Bengaluru, resource person for the programme informed about the concept of AAT. She also spoke about the psychological and physiological angles of the AAT approach, selecting animals for therapy and other topics. She also gave a live demonstration of AAT using a dog and a horse.
Suma R Nayak, ACT Trustee gave a few tips on animal welfare and kindness to animals and harmonious coexistence between animals and human beings.
Another guest at the programme, Charles Paul also spoke on the occasion and spoke about how animals help humans in day-to-day life.
Speaking about Anirveda, its founder K T Shwetha told mediapersons that it is a full-fledged centre for psychological assessment, therapy and training. “The aim of the organisation is to work towards positive mental health. The intention of the centre is to help each individual develop to their fullest potential as they commit to responsive and supportive intervention. Anirveda works with cases associated with mental retardation, autism, learning disability, emotional issues, delayed speech, slow learning, downs syndrome, cerebral palsy, ADHD, developmental disorder, pervasive developmental disorders and so on. It is built on the belief that each individual is unique and needs a holistic and progressive approach and AAT is one such method to explore the much needed social and emotional development and acquaint themselves with mainstream activities”, she said.
While the workshop was going on, a desi puppy and kitten adoption camp by ACT was also held at the premises.
