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Human—Animal BondTrauma Victims Help Each Other Heal

CLARISSA UTTLEY AND GARY COURNOYER

ko was abandoned when he was less than a year old. He was left to fend for himselfon the streets of New London, Connecticut. Because he had previously lived with afamily, he thought people were good. However, he learned some hard lessons duringthat time. When, after trying for three straight days to pick him up, animal controlfinally succeeded, Iko no longer trusted any of the people he met. Iko had been inthe shelter a few months when Gary Cournoycr and his wife met him. They both fellin love with this poor boy and brought him home that day, never thinking he wouldbecome a therapy pet. However, with lots of love and patience, he has done just that.Destiny, who is currently 14 years of age, was born into a family and, like all newborns, was totally dependent on her parents for all of her needs, including love andnurturing. However, she quickly learned this was not to be. The level of abuse andneglect she was subfected to from such an early age resulted in her parents’ rightsbeing terminated before she was five years of age. At this point, she no longer trustedany people she met. This started her journey through countless foster homes, grouphomes, residential placements, and hospitalizations. She currently resides in a grouphome in the Northeast.

Case Example

Destiny was so untrusting of people, especially people in authority Her history is oneof countless assaults on staff and administrators in her many placements. Her inabilityto trust the members of any family made a number of foster placements unsuccessful.Her life, until early adolescence, had been one failed placement after another. However,her child welfare supervisor noticed something about Destiny She had an inherentlove of animals. With the help of a local mentoring agency, the child welfare supervisor

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found a veterinarian who was willing to work with her. Destiny started to help out athis practice a few times a month. She was very excited about this but still continuedto exhibit some significant violent behaviors at her current group home. She hadinjured a number of staff over the last Fei months. The clinical placement did notthink it could keep her because of her level of violence. During this time, Destiny hada large support group of volunteers who played a number of different roles in her life,all trying to help her function at a more socially acceptable level. This included theveterinarian previously mentioned.

The child welfare supervisor and the clinician at her placement decided to try tohnd her a therapist who was certified in pet-assisted therapy. The clinician at Destinvplacement knew that Gary Coumoyer was a pet-assisted therapist and contaLted himto discuss a referral for Destiny Gary’ agreed to meet with Destiny the following week.The first meeting was canceled because Destiny behaviors had escalated to a pointwhere she had to he kept safe in her placement.The following week she did come io Gary Coumoyer’s office with her placementclinician. Her presentation was that of a person lacking many of the basic skills ofa human being. She was not well dressed, nor was she well groomed or clean, Herdirty hair hung in front of her face, and she appeared to hide behind it. She had verylittle to say other than a shrug or an “1 don’t know.” Initially, she ignored lko, but thatis a very difficult thing to do. Eventually, he went to her and put his head in her lap.She slowly warmed to him and started to stroke his head. As her placement clinicianand Gary discussed why she was in his office, she continued to pet lko. As the session wound down, Gary asked Destiny whether she would like to come hack nextweek. She shrugged again without commitment. Gary told her thai he needed to knowwhether she wished to continue with lko and him. She shrugged and said that sheguessed it would be OK.

At the next session, Destiny’s presentation was completely different. She was wellgroomed and even smiled when she saw Iko. During this session as she discussed anumber of things, Gary asked her why she apparently loved animals as much as shedid. Her response was ‘because they have never hurt me.”As the sessions progressed, Destiny relationship with lko became stronger, andthis improved her clinical relationship with Gary Iko and Destiny’ would interact forthe entire session, sometimes sitting on the floor, other times sitting on the couch, butalways together. Occasionally’, Iko would bring her a ball or a toy, and the game was on.While she was interacting with Iko, she and Gary’ would be discussing any’ number ofclinical areas affecting her life, It became clear that having Iko present helped Destiny’talk about some difficult areas. lko would bring a smile to Destiny’s face, and at timesshe would laugh at his antics. Destiny’ refused to attend only one session; however, sheapologized the following week.

Lately, Destiny behavior appears to have stabilized. She has been going to schoolregularly and has had far fewer inappropriate behaviors in her placement. This has led

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to her earning day visits with a cousin. She hopes to have overnights in the near future.Whereas the plan a few months ago was to move her to a higher-end placement facilityshe is noa staying where she is until a more permanent home can be found. Also, inthe last few months, her support team has played a larger role in Destiny’s life now thatshe is receiving more freedom in her placement. Although this team has been involvedwith Destiny longer than Iko and I have, the significant changes in Destiny life appearto have occurred since the introduction of pet-assisted therapy.Dcstiny story is one of hope and resiliency. Despite the untold horrors she wassubjected to at such an early age, her love of animals has carried her through to whereshe is now. Does this mean she will have a successful, everyday life going forward?Uhis cannot he determined at this point given her emotional and physical scarring.l-lowever, she is moving in a direction that not many people thought she could suecessfuliyachieve. When asked about her career goals, he stated that she would liketo work either with animals as a veterinarian or with babies as a nurse or doctor. Withher love of animals and the hope that this has brought her, it is Gary opinion that shecan succeed at whatever she chooses.As for Iko, he now gets very excited when Gary arrives at his office. He knows hewill be spending a fun hour with his friend Destiny, It appears that iko and Destinyhave helped each other grow to a better place than where they were before they meteach other.

Discussion

Humans experience very distinct developmental stages that provide them with crisesleading to growth. Children from birth through age two are contending with the crisisof trust versus mistrust, as described by Erik Erikson (Newman & Newman, 201 11. Asuccessful outcome for children who experience a trusting relationship during this ageis the pnme adaptive ego quality of hope: the idea that “one can attain one deep andessential wishes” (Newman & Newman, 2011, p. 77). If children do not experience atrusting relationship during their early years, they are more at risk for developing corepathologies, For very young children, this core pathology is withdrawal, which willlead to social and emotional detachment.As we saw in the case example, Destiny presented a highly withdrawn persona inher initial sessions with Gary and Iko. How humans resolve psychosocial crises willcontinue to have an impact on their lives throughout future developmental stages.Destiny experienced a high degree of mistrust during her infancy. With parental rightsrevoked, Destiny grew up resolving many of her psychosocial crises in the negative,coming out of each subsequent stage with core pathology (Psychosocial crises thatoccur at each life stage are presented in Table 21.1 [Newman & Newman, 2011].)

At the time that lko and Gary were able to work with Destiny she was in theearly adolescence life stage and attempting to resolve the psychosocial crisis of group

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identity versus alienation. As the case example concludes, we see Destiny begin to takesteps toward group identity, even discussing possible careers options based on herexperiences with her support team.Social workers know that the earlier they are able to intervene with children whohave expenenced trauma, the better chance of success they have with them. It is wellknown that the more life stages a child carries trauma with them without clinicalintervention, the more difficult it is to help them overcome these traumatic eventsTherefore, providing therapeutic interventions with young children as early as possibleis the best option. In these interventions, the therapy pet becomes the bridge thatconnects the child to the therapist and to other people eventually. Traumati:edchildren are untrusting of most people, but when the therapy pet puts his head intheir lap or brings them a toy, children have a hard time not engaging the pet in somemanner. In many instances, the therapist will gradually start engaging the therapypet with the child, which starts developing their relationship. Given the young age ofthese children, the most common therapeutic intervention is play therapy, which caninclude the therapy pet from the start.Obtaining the support needed to conduct a pet-assisted therapy program is perhapsthe most challenging aspect when attempting this type of therapeutic interventionwith young children. On a macro level, the leadership of your organization wouldneed to support this therapeutic intervention. The possibility of an injury to a child ismuch higher when the child is engaging in play with a therapy pet. The organizationwould naturally be concerned with liability issues. In addition, most facilities oragencies are accredited, so the inclusion of pet-assisted therapy would have to meetthe accreditation standards. The therapist has to help organizations develop policyto meet their accreditation standards involving pet-assisted therapy One of the waysthis has been accomplished is by having a folder on the therapy pet that includes alldocumentation regarding his or her certification and up-to-date medical records. Itmay also be necessary to obtain your own liability insurance for the therapy pet. On amicro level, parents or guardians would have to support the inclusion of the therapypet in the work with their child. They would need to be assured that the pet is certifiedand trained to do this work. At times, the therapist had parents sit in with their childto meet the therapy pet.

Once the above standards have been met, the fun can begin. Gary has includedtherapy pets in his clinical work in three different settings. The first was a juvenilecorrectional facility where he saw Cisco, his chocolate Labrador retriever, give incarcerated youth hope on so many levels (Cournoyer & Uttley, 2008). A number of them

I. never thought they could succeed at anything, yet they were successful at completingthe therapy groups they took part in with Gary and Cisco. Cisco also helped bridge thegap between rival factions on a number of occasions. In meetings with young men, hehelped them bridge their differences by giving equal love to all parties. Gary watchedthis happen on more than one occasion, and it really was a wonder to see it play out.

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Gary also helped a couple find a career as they started working ‘. ith animals in sheltersand attending classes to become veterinarian technicians after working with him, Itwas difficult to he tough with Cisco licking your face.In his current work at the local mental health center, ll<o is currently working withGary in a program with preschool-age children who have failed in a number of differentsettings already Iko helps them to trust other creatures, both clogs and people. Becauseof his unconditional love, these young children feel that they are worth somethingdespite what has happened in their past. Most children who go through this programrarely return to this high level of therapeutic care. They are successful, with theirparents support, at moving on with their young lives and with therapeutic support ata Iover level, such as outpatient counseling.In his private practice, Gary thinks that Destiny is already a success. Because of theimprovement in her level of functioning, she now has contact with a family-visitingresource. she has goals for her life, and she has learned different ways to respond toconflict that are more appropriate A few months ago this all seemed impossible. Thesupport team she has, of which Iko and Gary are members, have shown this youngwoman that she is worth caring for, as we all do, and thus she now cares for herself. Inall of the aforementioned examples, the power of hope and the strength of the humanspirit have triumphed and helped these people to urvive and move on in their lives,

Discussion Questions

1. In a t c ieiv of the case example and Table 21. 1. it becomes evident that Destiny began herlife icsolving life stage i ises in the negative. Hoivevc’t ivith the intervention of a supportteam, including Iko and the therapist, she has begun to positively resolve these crises. I[shecontinues on the positive trcijectorv, how do you believe her life stagcs of later adolescence,c’at lv adulthood, and later adulthood will be visualized?

Table 21.1 Psychosocial Crises

Life StagePsychosocial crisis

rfancy (birth to 2 years)Trust versus mistrustTodcller000d (2-4)Autonomy versus shame and doubtEarly school age )4.-6)Initiative versus guiltMiddle childhood (6—12)Industry versus inferiorityEarly adolescence (12—18) Group identity versus alienationLater adolescence (18—24)Individual identity versus identity confusionEarly aduithooa 24—34)Intimacy versus isolationMiddle adulthood (34—60) Generativity versus stagnationLater adulthood (60—75) Integrity versus despairElderhood (75 until death)Immortality versus extinction

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2. It is clear that Iko had a connection with Destiny that helped to croate a positiveenvironment in the clinical setting. What are some of the external and internal factorsthat helped to create this connection? How does the individual skill set of each member ofthe support team, including Destiny, contribute to the theme of hope and resiliency in thecase example?

3. When a client likes Destiny develops a relationship with a therapist, and espcciall atherapy pet, how do we move her past this so that she can move on ithoot the support ofher relationship with the therapy pet?

References

Cournoyer. c;. P, & Utt1e> C. lvi t2008) Cisco kids: A behavior intervention program In NI. TLoring, R. A. Geffner, &J. Marsh (Eds.’), Animal abuse and family violence. Linkages, researii,and implications for pwfessional piactice. San Diego: Haworth Press.Newman. B , & Newman, P (2012’). Development through life: A psvhosocial appiucich (11th ed.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Cengage Learning.

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