First of all, animal mediation is a generic term that covers a range of practices (horse therapy, zootherapy…). It is based on the ancestral and natural link that exists between human beings and animals to help vulnerable people. Indeed, animal mediation is preventive and therapeutical, it allows with trained animals to maintain or improve a state of physical, mental or social well-being. This method is based on the relationship established between the person, the animal and the animal mediation specialist. It is within this triangular relationship that the intervener seeks to provoke reactions that solicit the physical, psychic, social and emotional capacities of the person.
Véronique Servais, Psychologist and teacher-researcher in anthropology of communication at the University of Liege, speaks of triadic relationship:
The animal is considered as a sensitive, singular and interactional being, so it has a role of transitional agent or liaison between the patient and the professional. Consequently, animal mediation can only make sense through the conceptualization of this triadic interaction. This triangular relationship aims at understanding and searching for interactions (behaviors, emotions, affects, actions…). Furthermore it must have a framework defined within a constructed project and previously defined objectives between the patient and the therapist.
Secondly, through animal mediation, we find three different entities that will influence each other:
– The animal with its characteristics and character
– The patient with his history, his problems, his anxieties, his failures, his hopes, his desires…
– The professional intervener, with his knowledge but who also has his own way of being, his own experience and his own understanding of the situations he will encounter.
The animal occupies a rather classical place in this kind of arrangement: if it is not itself promoted “therapist”, it operates as a probe or a relay between the caregiver and the patient, and acts as if it could reach deep areas in the patient almost inaccessible to classical therapists. The complicity that is created with the animal allows the development of emotional bonds that quickly become l a reassuring imprint for the patient. The observed success of these therapeutic relationships are undoubtedly due to the fact that animals do not make any verbal judgement.
On the other hand, the animal, by its behavior and body language, does not saturate the communication of verbal messages but facilitates concentration, observation and appeasement by summoning the register of intimacy and sensoriality. Moreover, the animal is a derivative to anxiety, it installs the patient in emotional security. It helps to communicate, to express its emotions and anxieties. All in all the animal stimulates imagination, cognitive processes and creativity.
Finally, and to illustrate the point, let’s take an example of animal mediation in a psychiatric ward. In psychotic patients, we find two types of symptoms: “positive” symptoms (= hallucinations, delirious ideas and disorganizations) and “negative” symptoms (social withdrawal, poor speech, emotional blunting…). By opting for animal mediation with these patients, the aim is to contribute to reducing certain positive symptoms of psychosis, for example, by allowing certain patients to better anchor themselves in reality, and certain negative symptoms, by helping to place certain patients in a more collective dynamic, or to respond to specific needs (that of communicating, moving, etc.). The idea of involvement, communication and being one’s own actor will make patients responsible for their own actions and care.
Words I have learned:
- Well-being: bien-être
- Seeks: cherche
- Aims: vise à, objectifs
- Framework: cadre
- Landmarks: points de repère
- Undoubtedly: sans doute
- Ward: service
- Emotional blunting: émoussent émotionnel
Article by Susie Christofle