Mary Allen
Animals are good for the mental and physical health of humans – this has now been scientifically proven. Therapy cats help their human partners to treat the mentally ill or to protect seniors in nursing homes from loneliness. Read below how this works.
There is a specialty in human psychotherapy called “animal-assisted therapy”. Various animal species help their masters and mistresses in the treatment of their patients with anxiety disorders, depression, autism, or dementia.
Therapy dogs are often used, but dolphin or riding therapy with horses also ensures that these people get better faster. Therapy cats are in no way inferior to their animal counterparts.
What are the Tasks of Therapy Cats?
Therapy cats either live in the practice of a psychotherapist or accompany them to patient visits. You don’t have to perform any special tasks to help the patients. It is enough if they are there and behave normally, like any other cat. They decide for themselves what they feel like doing. Therapy cats, for example, approach new patients curiously and sniff them carefully.
They are impartial and do not judge people. This has a calming effect and can help to reduce fears or concerns about the therapy situation or the psychotherapist. This makes treatment much easier.
Can Every Velvet Paw Become a Therapy Cat?
In principle, any fur nose can become a therapy cat. However, it is not very advisable to bring house tigers with behavioral problems together with strangers, since these cats themselves first need help from a cat psychologist. A therapy cat should also not be afraid of visitors and be reasonably people-oriented. If the velvet-pawed therapist not only helps out in the practice but also goes on home visits, it is also important that she enjoys driving and quickly feels at home in foreign places.
The cats must be healthy and vaccinated so that patients cannot contract diseases from them. This is particularly important for the elderly and immunocompromised people. In this case, to be on the safe side, it is recommended not to barf the cat, i.e. to feed it raw meat. Even the smallest germ can be life-threatening for immunocompromised people.
Therapy cats often come from animal shelters. It can also be velveted paws with a handicap, for example, blindness. So the cats not only have a loving home and an important task, but they also serve as a role model for human patients. Using animals as an example, people can see that fears, handicaps, and traumatic experiences can be overcome.
This is How Therapy Cats Help Elderly People
Old people in retirement homes are often lonely, suffer from various physical ailments or dementia. Therapy cats can help alleviate these health problems. Their presence alone brings variety and life to the seniors’ everyday lives. The animal visit makes you forget the loneliness, makes you happy and relaxed.
Other positive effects of animal-assisted therapy with cats:
● High blood pressure is lowered
● Heartbeat calms down
● Stress hormones in the blood decrease
● Cholesterol levels drop
Animal-Assisted Therapy for People with Mental Illness
Therapy cats react directly to a person’s behavior and communicate with them in this way – honestly, genuinely, and without ulterior motives. Over time, a relationship of trust develops between animal and patient. The cat can be petted, purrs, maybe even come to cuddle on your lap.
This promotes empathy, calms, and helps to concentrate on the moment. Furthermore, the fur noses provide a topic of conversation, so that the patient’s shyness towards the human therapist decreases. The cat’s acceptance and unprejudiced affection is also balm for a cracked sense of self-esteem.
In this way, therapy cats help patients suffering from the following mental illnesses, for example:
● Depression
● Anxiety Disorders
● Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Cat Therapy for Children with Autism
Animal-assisted therapy not only helps adults, but children too. Children with autism in particular benefit from therapy with animal companions. Autism comes in many different facets and degrees of severity, but there are a few commonalities:
● Difficulty in interpersonal communication
● Difficulty with abstract thinking (statements are often taken literally)
● Difficulty interpreting other people’s feelings
Therapy cats accept their little human patients for who they are. They use no irony, no ambiguity in communication, and always give direct feedback on the behavior of their counterpart. The difficulties that arise for autistic children in interpersonal communication do not arise when they come into contact with animals. This helps the children to open up and to understand their fellow human beings better.