Animal Assisted Therapy

SERVCIES

Lead the Way are specialists in the field of Animal-Assisted Therapy or “AAT”. Through our highly qualified staff and partnership organisations, we offer both clinical services for clients and training and education in Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI).

We specialise in working with adolescents, school aged children, families and parents.

Our highly skilled team can assist with a range of personal and mental health concerns. We can do this via traditional ‘talk therapy’ which involves being in a counselling room for approximately 50 minutes with your Psychologist. You can have a Certified Therapy-Dog/Cat there too should you choose.

We also assist clients via ‘experiential therapy’. This is where you spend much less time talking, and much more time interacting with the therapy animals.

Do you have an adolescent with behavior problems with plenty to complain about and finding it hard to identify good things? Imagine them learning how to work with their anger because they don’t want to scare or take their frustrations out on an animal.

Through animal-assisted therapy sessions, adolescents can learn to change the way they interact with people by learning new techniques in guided interactions with animals.

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) uses the relationship with animals to simulate other relationships. This is what animal-assisted therapy is all about: incorporating trained, screened, and healthy animals into a client’s treatment plan to help the client meet specific goals.

We Can Help With

Counselling or psychotherapy, and this may help with a range of issues, such as personal concerns, complex family situations,
traumatic life events and mental illness. Issues addressed during counselling may include;

Anxiety, fears & phobias*

Depression

Mental health concerns

Trauma, grief & loss

School refusal

Anxiety, fears & phobias*

Depression

Mental health concerns

Trauma, grief & loss

Friendships, relationships & bullying

Puberty & sexuality

Body image

Risky or difficult behaviours

Drug & Alcohol use

Family conflict

Separation, divorce & step-families

Speech disorders

Sibling rivalry

Rules & boundaries

*Please note: We specialise in treating dog and cat phobias. Given our access to trained Therapy Animals, we are in a unique position to assist our clients to overcome their fears.

Animals are great models for living a positive life.

They don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future, they make friends and forgive easily, they give honest feedback and don’t care how you look, sound or dress.

Therapy animals;

Can help you feel more relaxed and at ease with the counselling process.

Can reduce stress levels, e.g. heart rate, blood pressure and stress hormones

Can help people feel relaxed and open up, e.g. helping to produce ‘feel-good’ hormones

Can provide a focus during counselling, or light relief, or simple comfort

Therapeutic Dog-Training

Train your dog, help your self!

Therapeutic Dog Training allows individuals or families to work through issues whilst training their dog. Lets face it, your dog is often an integral and important part of the family, and it can respond in unhelpful ways to conflict or stress.

This service may occur in your own home, at our Psychology Clinic, or a combination of both. We recommend at least one session in the dog’s own home.

Therapeutic Dog Training can;

Develop skills by learning life lessons of dogs

Understand the impact of human stress on dogs, and learn ways to manage this (both for the dog and the humans)

Identify & manage unhelpful patterns of behaviour in ourselves and our dog

Develop skills to effectively train your dog to be a happy and social member of society

Address any behavioural problems your dog experiences and make links to your own role in contributing to or remedying these problems

Improve your understanding, communication and bonding with your dog(s)

Please note: This service is only offered by a DUAL qualified Psychologist and Canine Behavioural Trainer, or teams of qualified Psychologists and Trainers, and is subject to availability. Our highly trained staff are accompanied by their own trained and certified Therapy and Demonstration Dogs. Home visits will incur additional charges.

Traditional ‘talk therapy’ or counselling does not suit everyone.

This can be especially true for young people. Working with our Therapy-Dogs/Cat is another way of addressing issues or concerns.

Working with our therapy animals you can develop skills including;

Improved communication

Increased patience

Understanding body language

Developing body awareness

Improved empathy

Understanding relationships

Managing impulsive or difficult behaviour

Call our office to book a session 03 9761 0973