Animal-Assisted Therapy
Our animal assisted therapy program at the Center for Social Success utilizes small breed, hypo-allergenic, non-shedding puppies to teach, calm, and motivate our clients. This is only one of the ways we teach social skills while at the same time making therapy fun and exciting! Animals can often make an instant connection with children when adults can’t. They engage children in the therapy process in a very non-threatening way and help to overcome resistance to engaging in the therapy process. The puppies are also used as a play reward after the child talks about difficulties at home and school and discusses new ways to solve problems. Puppies can’t talk– so they also help us to teach children how to pick up on non-verbal cues as well as how to correctly interpret body language. Our puppies would love to help your child deal with feelings and resolve problems, including communication difficulties, fears, worries, anger, depression, parental separation and divorce, bullying, behavior problems, trauma and abuse.