Rags to Riches: Story of a Therapy Dog
How many of us are willing to put ourselves out there more?
How many of us will ever be comfortable in talking to a third person about how we feel?
How many of us are open to talking to psychologist?
Considering our society I’d say, not many!
The 37th episode of Stable Talks was all about Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and the journey of Johnny in particular. Our speaker for the day was Shilpa Raghavan who works as an AAT practitioner. AAT is generally seen as an alternative or complementary type of therapy that involves animals as a form of treatment, but according to Shilpa, “AAT is a sort of a non-judgemental platform where one can express oneself. It’s like connecting with nature”
So many of us live our lives in constant fear of judgement which inherently becomes the sole reason for us not opening up to other people and this is exactly what AAT aims to remove. It’s easier to connect with animals as there is no judgement or preconceived notions but at the same time the therapy animal reciprocates whatever we show towards them.
“I used to feed this other dog and then Johnny started tagging along with him. To me he never looked like he belonged in the streets” said Shilpa. She added “He was very scared never letting us pet him and that’s when I realised he’s an abused dog. It was really nice to see how the other dog actually took care of Johnny.”
“We usually say that animals don’t feel emotions but I could see how badly Johnny was affected after the death of this other dog and until we see them go through something I don’t think we realise how much they can process emotions” said Shilpa.
There is a wide range of emotions we all feel. It’s easy to say we need to empathise with others or put ourselves in their shoes but nobody taught us how to do that. And this is something we can learn from animals.
“I had also lost a friend at this time and I realised that Johnny was going through the same and on some level it felt like we were helping each other get through the tough times. After which we started training him to become a therapy dog. This is Johnny’s story from rags to riches”
During the course of the session the attendees engaged in various activities. Some of which were asking them to write down which part of Johnny’s story they related most to, a basic scribble drawing and more. Scribble drawing initially did not really make sense but it helps us understand what our perspective is and how to see things from a new one. These recreational activities were centred around Johnny but we hope on some level we all would take this into our personal lives. The next time we have a difference of opinion with someone, perhaps we could see the commonalities between the two of us and try to relate with the other person.
