Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Guidelines for Practice

by Aubrey H. Fine (Editor), Megan Mueller (Editor), Zenithson Ng (Editor)

The original edition was the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the ways in which animals can assist therapists with treatment of specific populations, and/or in specific settings. The second edition continues in this vein, with 7 new chapters plus substantial revisions of continuing chapters as the research in this field has grown. New coverage includes: Animals as social supports, Use of AAT with Special Needs students, the role of animals in the family- insights for clinicians, and measuring the animal-person bond.

Genres: Psychology, Animals, Dogs

552 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1999

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a good perspective on animal assisted therapy. I think it's a great concept, but the book made it clear the ways it can go wrong when enthusiastic therapy animal handlers are not able to clearly judge the stress on the animal. It also opened my eyes to the possibility that the therapy recipients may not always be as positively engaged as the animal handlers.

I may still entertain the idea of doing animal assisted therapy at some point, but with a clearer, more 360 view of the idea.

[EstelleLiterature · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three chapters worth reading in this mostly theoretical book are 'Animals in the lives of children', 'A 4-year trial of animal-assisted therapy with public school special education students', 'Clinical approaches to assessing and utilizing animal-related experiences in therapeutic interventions with children, adolescents, and their caregivers'. But if you're really looking for a practical book on animal-assisted therapy, please do read the novel 'The Horse Whisperer'. In most animal-assisted therapies, animals are used to treat humans, but in 'The Horse Whisperer', Nicholas Evans places humans and animals at the same level, shows how they should be treated and healed together, an approach that makes more sense because animals aren't there to serve humans.

[Ruby the Wizard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook. Got a lot out of the sections I read, learned about myself as well. The formatting could be better, there are so many citations that it would really be much more readable with the use of bold/italics rather than solely needing to mentally skip over countless parentheses.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant introduction to the emerging field of animal assisted therapy.

[Deyanira Villalta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource and reference material for the scientific study of Human-Animal Interactions (HAI), also known as Human-Animal Bond (HAB) and Anthrozoology.