My Story

Intro

In animal-assisted therapy (AAT) therapists work along with our trained therapy animals to speed up the recovery process and to help a child or adult learn or improve various skills. This includes social skills, verbal skills, physical skills and cognitive skills. Radhika and Rohini have set up the first AAT operation in India and are now working alongside their dogs to make a difference in people’s lives.

About Me

We are Clinical Psychologists and dog trainers. Being animal lovers we always wanted to incorporate animals in our line of work, because we believe in the power of animals in healing people. Animals do not discriminate against caste, color, creed, deformities or failures and somehow their sixth sense always reaches out to a soul in need. We use these qualities of our therapy animals to help alleviate the conditions of people in need of special care and attention.

The idea of using animals to help people first came to us during our fieldwork in our M.A. course when we had to work in the psychiatric wards of various hospitals. We often had to work with clients who loved animals and the moment we would start to talk about animals, they would become more relaxed with us. It was easier to connect with clients and get better and quicker responses, rather than just apply the conventional therapy that was being used.

We researched this area and found out that animal-assisted therapy is a new field that is still in its initial stages in many countries. We also found that in India no one had been using this as a medium of therapy. We felt then a need for this therapy here and decided to start an organization that provides AAT services. We wanted to reach out to as many children, adults and senior citizens through this therapy. We combined our knowledge of dogs with our training in the field of clinical psychology to use “Animal-Assisted Therapy” with our clients.

We then did a one year course from the University of North Texas, USA and Delta Society, USA after finishing our Masters in Clinical Psychology and became certified practitioners of animal-assisted therapy. In November 2004, Rohini Fernandes bought a golden retriever puppy, named her ‘Angel’ and trained her as a therapy dog. She is the first therapy dog of ‘Animal Angels Foundation’ which has been named after her. We started Animal Angels Foundation in January 2005 when we were 24 years old.

My Venture

Being animal lovers, my colleague Radhika and I have always wanted to incorporate animals in our line of work. This is because we believe animals do not discriminate against caste, color, creed, deformities or failures and somehow their sixth sense always reaches out to a soul in need. We use these qualities of our therapy animals to help alleviate the conditions of people in need of special care and attention.

The idea of using animals to help people first came to us during our fieldwork in our M.A. course when we had to work in the psychiatric wards of various hospitals. We often had to work with clients who liked animals and the moment we would start to talk about animals, they would become more relaxed with us. It was easier to connect with clients and get better and quicker responses, rather than just apply the conventional therapy that was being used.

We researched this area and found out that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a new field that is still in its infancy in many countries. We also found that in India no one had been using this as a medium of therapy. We felt then a need for this therapy here and decided to start an organization that provides AAT services. We wanted to reach out to as many children, adults and senior citizens through this therapy. In November 2004, I bought Angel who is our first therapy dog and then in January 2005 we started Animal Angels Foundation, which is the first organization in India practising in the field of animal-assisted therapy. Our specially trained therapy pets assist us in helping children and adults learn or improve various skills and in speeding up the recovery process. We have been practising animal-assisted therapy for the past 5 years in the areas of developmental disorders, psychiatric disorders, physical disabilities and behavioral/emotional problems.  We also work with kindergartens and schools where our therapy pets are used in educating children on how to interact with animals.

Our main objective has always been to “enhance the quality of people’s lives through our therapy animals”.

For example, when Sheela (name changed to protect identity), an eight-year-old child with Autism enters the therapy room, she runs straight towards her friend, therapy dog Casper. She then lies down by his side and rests her head on his back. Sheela found it very difficult to interact with people and had a very short attention span. She was then introduced to Casper and after just twelve sessions of animal-assisted therapy, she plays with her peers and responds positively to her teacher who says that she is ‘now a happier child’..

We have also developed a volunteer training programme for people interested in this field. They are trained in the knowledge and skills necessary to facilitate animal-assisted activities in a variety of settings in a way that is safe, humane and ethical. To date, we have conducted five workshops for people who want to work with us as volunteers.
We would like expand our services to start AAT in hospitals to help treat children and adults with physical illnesses and to help speed up their recovery process. Animal Angels Foundation would like to venture into these areas of heart care, pediatrics and other physical ailments along with our specially-trained therapy pets.  We have been unsuccessful so far since most hospitals in India are of the opinion that dogs will pollute the sanitized environment. But this is not so as AAT has provided guidelines to ensure complete hygiene is maintained during hospital visits.

We also want to have more therapists on our team so that we can reach out to a wider segment of the population not just in Mumbai but also in other cities in India. We do want to expand to other cities so that people from all over benefit from this therapy.