The Emotional Healing Power of Animals

Whether you’re feeling a little down or going through a serious mental crisis, animals can help.

Instead of interacting with a phone or TV, interact with living creatures instead! Animals are fascinating and wonderful. Every animal has its own quirks, and the more you spend time with them, there’s more to discover about them that you’ll love.

There’s a type of therapy called animal-assisted therapy that helps people with mental health conditions by encouraging interaction with animals. Animal-assisted therapy isn’t just randomly playing with animals – it’s a specific process led by a professional who will create a plan for your treatment. It’s best to use this therapy in combination with other treatments.

Aside from animal-assisted therapy, you can emotionally benefit from animals in other ways, whether you have a diagnosed mental health condition or not. Below, I’ll explore ways you can nourish your soul by bonding with animals!

How dogs can benefit you

I highly recommend adopting a dog because I can tell you firsthand that dogs are truly special. I got my dog Presley after my father passed away and he helped me find peace and healing when I needed it most.

What makes dogs so powerful for emotional healing? It’s their loyalty and unconditional love. People will lie to you, insult you, and betray you, but dogs won’t. When you’re down in the dumps, sometimes it can feel better to talk to a dog than to a person. (After all, they’ll never spill your secrets!)

If you have PTSD or another mental health condition, a dog can give you comfort. A study showed that service dogs improved the mental health of veterans with PTSD. Other studies and reports reveal that dogs promote feelings of love and affection, making people calm and happy. This even works for people with severe mental illnesses and people in prisons.

Dogs are great for your physical health, not just mental. Exercise is one of the foundations of health, meaning that many aspects of your health depend on it. That’s why it’s a huge benefit that dogs help you exercise more. Taking your furry friend for a walk and playing with them helps both them and you.

Exploring equine therapy

Equine-assisted therapy, or equine therapy, brings joy and comfort to people through interaction with horses. This type of therapy involves activities like feeding and grooming a horse and leading them around an enclosure. Riding the horse isn’t necessary, because equine therapy isn’t about learning horseback riding skills; it’s about taking care of a horse and bonding with the horse.

The results of equine therapy are incredible. When combined with other therapeutic treatments, equine therapy can give healing to people with depression, anxiety, addiction, eating disorders, and dissociative disorders. Plus, equine therapy improves patients’ social skills, self-esteem, impulse regulation, and sense of trust. It’s not a cure, but it’s an enormously effective treatment.

Here’s why equine therapy works: Horses are very sensitive to humans’ body language, facial expressions, and emotions, and they respond in a way known as mirroring. Horses tend to mirror a person’s behavior and emotions, giving the person immediate feedback so they’ll become more self-aware. This helps them better process and express their emotions to their equine therapist. Being with a horse can make a person to feel safe and at peace, allowing them to be vulnerable. That’s why people with severe mental health conditions can make great progress through equine therapy.

Having fun with other animals

Dogs and horses are the two most common animals that are used for emotional support and therapy. That said, other animals can help too.

Horses are great but most people aren’t able to actually get one as a pet. As for dogs, Psych Central points out that while dogs are fun pets for many people, they’re not right for everyone because they require a ton of care and responsibility. Dogs can be a lot to handle, so if you’re concerned about that, you may want to get a cat because they tend to be lower maintenance than dogs.

If you’re neither a dog nor a cat person, that’s fine too. Rabbits, fish, hamsters, lizards, birds… there’s a variety of animals to choose from. Which animal(s) would be best for you? It’s all about choosing an animal that’s right for your personality.

If you aren’t able to afford a pet or equine therapy, don’t worry. You can visit friends who have pets and play with their pets. You can volunteer at an animal shelter – the animals will appreciate the love you’ll give them. Another idea is pet-sitting. Earn some cash and get a mood boost at the same time.

Interacting with our non-human friends reminds us that we are one with nature. It’s good to spend time in nature and observe the animals there, because it allows you to be grateful for the gift of animals. Take better care of your mental health by taking care of animals!