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http://tfj.sagepub.com/content/22/3/350The online version of this article can be found at:

DOI: 10.1177/1066480714534394

2014 22: 350The Family JournalCatherine Ford Sori and Jessica Ciastko Hughes

Animal-Assisted Play Therapy: An Interview With Rise VanFleet

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Interview

Animal-Assisted Play Therapy:An Interview With Rise VanFleet

Catherine Ford Sori1

and Jessica Ciastko Hughes2

Abstract

Rise VanFleet is a well-known family therapist who is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania, and a leading expert in Filial Therapy,having studied with the founders and creators, Bernard and Louise Guerney. She is also a Registered Play Therapist Supervisorand a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant. In this telephone interview, VanFleet discusses her involvement in animal-assistedplay therapy (AAPT), her research, and the training methods she has developed. She is a prolific author and conducts trainingsthroughout the globe in both filial therapy and AAPT.

Keywords

animal-assisted therapy, play therapy, equine therapy, animal-assisted play therapy

Sori: Good morning, Rise! I appreciate this opportunity to

talk about your work. To start, could you share a bit about

your work in filial therapy, as well as in animal-assisted

play therapy (AAPT)?

VanFleet: OK, sure. Ive studied filial therapy with its foun-

ders and creators, Bernard and Louise Guerney, and have

been involved in using it, teaching it, and writing about it

ever since the early 80s. I am really impressed with how well

it works with families. Ive never seen another intervention

for families with younger children that has worked as well,

because it is truly a blend of family therapy and play therapy.On the animal side of things, Im very involved in AAPT,

which actually has some similarities with filial therapy. In

both, we use play as the primary way of communicating and

working through problems with children in a therapeutic

settingin a therapeutic way, with therapeutic goals. Then

we add in an animal that helps us in a variety of ways to reach

those goals. It is really a combination of Animal-Assisted

Therapy and play therapy. We keep the interactions very

playful and light because that adds to the emotional safety

for kids, but at the same time were trying to accomplish

therapeutic goals.

When I began getting into animal-assisted play therapy

(AAPT), I realized that even though I had spent my life with

animals, I needed to know more. I have been studying

animal-related topics for 20 years, but I really became

immersed in it 10 years ago, where Ive been studying dog

behavior, socialization, and training. That is how I ended

up becoming a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant. Mostly,

I train other mental health professionals. I have a small prac-

tice where I still see child and family therapy clients, and I do

a lot of writing and teaching. I also provide direct services to

families, usually those with children, when they are having

behavior problems with their dogs.

Sori: So incorporating an animal in play therapy helps you

meet therapeutic goals. You have certainly contributed to the

field with your work in the filial therapy, and now also for

AAPT.

VanFleet: Ive been really lucky. Ive had the great honor

and fun opportunity to travel all over the world and provide

trainings in filial therapy. In the last several years, AAPT

training has become more of an international venture, too.

I have a coleader from the U.K., Tracie Faa-Thompson

(VanFleet & Faa-Thompson, 2010), who is a play therapist

and horse specialist. She is amazing with horses and we doworkshops in the U.K., Europe, and here in the U.S.

Sori: That is excellent. I think many people are aware of

animal-assisted activities, where a dog might go into a

nursing home, or a hospital or a library, but they might not

be familiar with Animal-Assisted Play Therapy. Could you

explain the difference between the two?

VanFleet: Yes. That sometimes gets confusing because of

the way the terms are used. The Pet Partners Program (that

was formerly the Delta Society), has definitions of Animal-

Assisted Activities and Animal-Assisted Therapy, and then

Ill share what Im doing, which is a little bit different.

Animal-Assisted Activities are programs where you dont

necessarily have a licensed professional involved, but people

do have training and they take their dogs into the places like

1Division of Psychology and Counseling, Governors State University,

University Park, IL, USA2Capella University, Michigan City, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Catherine Ford Sori, Division of Psychology and Counseling, Governors State

University, University Park, IL, USA.

Email: [email protected]

The Family Journal: Counseling andTherapy for Couples and Families

2014, Vol. 22(3) 350-356The Author(s) 2014Reprints and permission:

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you mentioned: hospitals, nursing homes, visitation programs,

which are wonderful programs. Animal-assisted therapy

(AAT), technically, is the involvement of an appropriately

credentialed and trained professional who works toward ther-

apeutic goals. That could be a physical therapist, an occupa-

tional therapist, a psychotherapist, a counselor, or a speech

and hearing therapist. Those kinds of professionals might be

able to involve a dog or other animals to assist them in theirwork. Aubrey Fine is a psychologist who has been instrumen-

tal in AAT, and Cindy Chandler has been at the forefront in

the American Counseling Association (ACA) in developing

Animal-Assisted Therapy in the counseling field.

My interests lie in animal-assisted play therapy. What is

different from other forms of animal-assisted therapy is the

play therapy component. We are trying to create a playful

atmosphere, using animalhuman play interactions as part of

the therapy. We facilitate it in a way that is consistent with

play therapy, but everything is a little bit lighter. Playfulness

is an important component for creating that emotional safety.

Often when we think of traditional animal-assisted therapy, we

have dogs who are a little bit quieter. In AAPT, we can usedogs who are a bit more jazzed up because we are doing play

activities indoors and sometimes outdoors. So we want dogs

who are playful and really enjoy interacting with people. This

is probably true of animal-assisted therapy, but the playful part

is very important to us. We want nice stable animals who are

willing to engage in lots of play.

Sori: So the animals have to be people-friendly?

VanFleet: Yes, and I think thats probably true of all animal

therapies, but this goes a little bit beyond that. If we start

playing a hide-and-seek game, we want the dogs to be inter-

ested enough that theyll go look for the child. You want

some of that to be a natural interest (even though we could

probably use treats to build that interest), but we want

animals that genuinely seek out play and interaction with

kids or adults. While we use AAPT with children, it is actu-

ally very appropriate throughout the life span because we all

could do with a little bit of lightness in our lives. It helps us

step back and see our problems more clearly and be able to

work them through a little bit better.

Sori: Oh, thats so true. So the animals have to be willing to

engage in play?

VanFleet: Yes, for the most part you want playful animals.

One of the things we do is to create a playful, lighter tone

in the session, because we know when we try to talk seriously

to the kids we often dont get to the real root of things.

Children can sometimes resist that, or they just dont have the

capacity yet to talk in an abstract way about their problems.But we often see them playingabout their problems. There

are a number of different ways we can use this playfulness,

but certainly having an animal who is willing to play is an

important piece of it.

Sori: Excellent, and thank you for clarifying that. In your book,

Play Therapy with Kids and Canines (2008), you discussed

the rationale for AAPT, and I wonder if you could talk about

that and what some of the principles are behind the approach?

VanFleet: Yes. Basically there are a few different aspects to

how we think about doing AAPT. One of the things that is

important is that we need to consider the animals welfare

just as were thinking about the welfare of our clients.

Because the animals are being conscripted into this, we really

have to be aware of whether or not they enjoy what weve

asked them to do, or if they are just tolerating it. The rationale

is that children relate quite readily to animals. Gail Melson

at Purdue University has written a great deal about how

important animals are to children. Mary Renck Jalongocommented, Companion animals should matter to educa-

tors, if for no other reason than that they matter so much

to children (2004, p. 17). That should be true of counselors

and therapists as well. Kids naturally gravitate toward ani-

mals unless theyve learned to be afraid of them. The

animals provide whats called a social lubricant effect, in

that, if a client of any age finds it difficult to trust other

humans, they might be able to relate to an animal more

readily. Attachment theory is the primary underlying theory

that Im focused on when doing AAPT. Im really looking

for how we create good relationships. Whether our relation-

ships are with a therapist, with our parents, with our chil-

dren, with each other as professionals or colleagues, or inour families, it is almost exactly the same kind of considera-

tions as when we are interacting with animals.

Sori: Can I ask you a question about the social lubricant

effect? Just to clarify, are you saying that if a child bonds

with an animal that might carry over to their attachment with

people?

VanFleet: Yes. This can occur when people are unable to

connect with other people. It could range anywhere from

being a shy individual to having experienced massive

trauma. If we feel safe with the animals and are able to cre-

ate some sort of connection with them, there are definitely

indications that this carries over to human relationships.

Ive seen it happen many times in therapy where you have

a child who never speaks. They might have made some

progress in play therapy, but if you try to talk with them

they just clam up. Then you bring the animal into the picture

and suddenly theyre talking a mile a minute. Theres some-

thing that happens when the animal is there; perhaps it cre-

ates an additional sense of safety, perhaps less focus on the

child, less self-consciousness. Whatever it is, Ive often

seen that kids then connect to the therapist. You might be

the first person the child can trust because youve shared

your own animal with them. If they like the animal, they

start liking you a little better; feeling more comfortable with

you. That forms a bridge to improved human connections.

Sori: Fascinating. Anything more that you want to share about

the principles or the rationale?VanFleet: Yes. One of the things that Ive noticed in some

programs, whether its a visitation program or other Animal-

Assisted Therapy work, is that the animal has become a tool

to the process, and the focus isnt that much on the animal.

This isnt good service to the animal, and it doesnt make our

therapy as useful as it could be. Ive seen examples where a

dog has been asked to do a certain type of work, and you can

see the dog looks absolutely miserable, but the human handler

doesnt seem to be aware of that. We emphasize watching our

animals, their behavior, and their body language; making sure

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that they are enjoying it. Sometimes we might ask the animals

to do something that they arent that keen on, but its never

aversive. For the majority of interactions we want the animal

to have a good time and to be motivated to do that kind of

work. So the dog isnt just being petted, although that might

be part of what we do, but the dog is also playing and doing

things that the dog might be interestedin naturally, and so they

enjoy the work. We focus a lot on having equal and reciprocalrespect between our human clients and the animals, having a

really good relationship with them. It is actually a metaphor

for the therapeutic relationship. How we interact with our own

animal in this process says a lot to our clients about us and

what they can expect of us, and it also models what relation-

ships should be. Thats why I think there has to be reciprocity

in the relationship. Of course, were concerned about safety,

we want to make sure the animals are well trained. The final

thing for now is that AAPT is a process-oriented therapy, so

were looking at the process and the relationships and the

interactions. We have specific goals, but we focus on the pro-

cess. Part of being a play therapist is to be creative, and say,

Okay, how can I take what just happened and use it withinthe play therapy processso that it is therapeutically valuable?

We always have goals; we are always working with our

human clients toward those goals. It just takes some extra

creativity to figure out, Okay, my dog really likes (x), so how

do I build (x) into an intervention thats playful and helps meet

the clients goals?

Sori: Thats a really clear way to think about the process. You

keep mentioningreciprocityand thats so interesting because

it speaks of Systems Theory and how people are in reciprocal

relationships, and this is what youre saying happens with the

child and the pet. I can see that it could benefit the relation-

ship the child has with family members in an isomorphic

wayif the child first develops a relationship with a pet that

often carries over to the relationship with the therapist, and

then has the potential to affect family relationships.

VanFleet: Yes. My own training is in Family Therapy so I

tend to think like a Family Therapist. I think about systems.

When we focus on building mutually respectful relation-

ships with animals in therapy, it carries over. Now we know

animals have feelings, cognitive abilities, and preferences,

so we need to honor those. We are trying to incorporate that

same type of thoughtful involvement of the animal in the

process as we would if we were working with a human

co-therapist.

Sori: So the dog really functions like a co-therapist. And you

make these decisions on a much deeper level rather than just

bringing a dog into the therapy room.VanFleet: Exactly. I think theres a temptation that because

you have a nice animal at home you might think, Oh, Ill

just take him in to work with me and share him with my

clients. There is vastly more to it than that. We arent doing

the best by the animals or our clients if we do that without

getting proper training, without having a deep understanding

of animal body language and what our animals are trying to

tell us. Recently, I have heard of cases where people took

their nice pet dogs into the therapy room and the child was

bitten; they didnt understand how to read their dogs body

language. The dog was probably giving signals all over the

place that This is not comfortable for me. The child might

not understand that its not okay to wrap their arms around a

dogs neck (most dogs really hate that feeling), but its a very

natural human thing to do. In order for us to conduct AAPT

in a safe, ethical, and therapeutically effective manner, we

have a lot to learnabout the animals, our relationships with

those animals, how we train those animals, and then how wewatch what goes on in the therapeutic session.

Sori: Excellent. Can you give some examples of an animals

body language that might indicate that the dog isnt comfor-

table or is stressed?

VanFleet: Yes. There are lots and Ill share some of the

really common ones. We are all trained observers of human

behavior and we need to start applying that to animals and

learning how they communicate. If you see two dogs who

are meeting for the first time, often they approach at an

angle, and dont make direct eye contact, which they actu-

ally dont like. In fact, sustained direct eye contact is a sign

of aggression to dogs. Or if dogs turn their heads to the side

and look away that might be a sign of stress. Then I watchthe rest of the dogs body language to see whats going on.

A high tail thats wagging somewhat tightly usually means

that the dog is stressed. Sometimes, they will flick out their

tongue and lick their lips or noses; thats a sign of stress.

You can look for whale eyes, where their eyes are large

and turned so you can see white on the sides, which often is

a sign of big stress. The last one Ill mention is if they freeze

their whole body; if they just go quiet, they are probably

stressed. If nothing changes, that behavior is usually fol-

lowed by a growl, and after that comes a snap, and then a

bite. So you want to cat ch it early, when t hey freeze. When

youre learning animal body language you want to put all

the separate signals together as Whats the whole body

of the animal doing? You also look at the context theyre

in. We know dogs dont like to be crowded into corners. So

if I have a dog who does a turn away and licks her lips, and

she shows whale-eyes, and I have a client blocking the

dogs way out of that corner, the context is telling me that

dog has no escape route, or cant remove herself from the

situation. Thats where Ill intervene, to make sure that

the dog gets an escape route, so I relieve that pressure on

the dog. Thats not safe for the dog, and its not safe for the

client, and if something happens, it has ramifications for all

of us using AAT and AAPT. If we miss the signals and

theres an incident, a client could be traumatized or injured.

All it takes is one or two bad news stories that involve

animals in therapeutic practice to impact those of us that areworking hard to do this in a responsible manner. I would

hate for that to happen. Thats why Im a big proponent for

all counselors who are involving animals in their work to

learn the body language of those animals really well.

Sori: So there is really a lot you have to look at for every-

bodys safety and benefit. Those are excellent examples of

behaviors weve all seen in our pets, but didnt realize they

were such important signals. How would you work with a

child, or teach a child to approach a dog or a horse safely,

in a way that the animal would be most comfortable?

352 The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families 22(3)



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VanFleet: Well, I teach all my clients how to approach dogs

safely. I do this even though my primary play therapy dog,

Kirrie, is very people oriented, and shes very happy to be

approached by anybody. I want clients to have this skill for

other dogs in their lives. First, I teach them how to allow the

animal to approach them, rather than them approaching the

animal. That way they can determine, Is this animal inter-

ested in me? Theres a program that you can read about onthe website, http://www.doggonesafe.com, called Be a

Tree, which is a metaphor we use, where we teach kids

to stand with their feet apart (their trunk), and their arms

held out to the side become the branches. Next, the arms are

brought in toward their belly and they look down at their

hands. We make a game out of it. That makes them look like

a tree trunk standing there. So if they were out in a park and

a loose dog comes around and they dont know if the dog is

okay or not, if they be a tree they are much less interest-

ing to the dog. Its very easy to learn. It gives them a new

skill they can use in the world, and its a way of keeping

safe. We also teach kids how to pet dogs, not by wrapping

their arms around their necks, but by first asking permissionof the owner and the dog. Then we instruct them to scratch

the dog under the chin or on the chest, which is much more

pleasurable than a pat on the head. They learn how to stand

at an angle so the dog realizes, Okay, this person isnt

aggressive (what head-on approaches mean to dogs). First,

I have clients practice this using stuffed, life-sized toy dogs.

Then I get a paper towel, rub it on their arms so it has the

childs scent on it, and take it for the dog to sniff, so the dog

has some information about the child before I introduce

them. Even though most therapy dogs are really well socia-

lized, and they know how to do polite greetings with clients,

it takes very little time to teach our clients how to be safe

around dogs.

Sori: Thank you. I just wanted to comment that I love the

Be-a-Tree, and the idea of using the paper towel so that

the dog has the clients scent is excellent.

VanFleet: Yes, and thats a good example of reciprocity,

considering the animals point of view, and its giving them

information. We have information about our clients before

we meet with them, and so I want the animals Im working

with to have that too.

Sori: So that paper towel becomes their intake?

VanFleet: Yes. I hadnt thought of it that way before, but

thats exactly right.

Sori: I know you use positive reinforcement in your training,

while others advocate for a more aversive approach. Can

you tell us why thats so important to you to use positivereinforcement?

VanFleet: Yes. Were focusing on our relationship with

our animals that we are involving in this process of play

therapy. They therapistanimal relationship is a metaphor

for everything; its a model for relationships, its a model

for healthy attachment. The type of relationship we create

is very important, and were going to show that in our inter-

actions with our animal therapy partners, which our clients

are going to observe. You can train a dog or help a dog get

past any behavior problem using positive methods. The

whole idea of dominance theory is based on some faulty

studies of wolves in captivity. The scientists who originally

presented dominance theory, and the idea that you have to

be the pack leader, have rescinded that. We now know that

dogs organize themselves much like human families, and

the same is true of wolves in the wild. They rarely use force

among themselves. They need to have clear communication

from us, but we never have to use force because force will hurtthat relationship. Some of the more dominance-oriented or

coercive types of dog training use choke chains, prong collars,

or e-stim, and they have much greater chance of fallout. Some

veterinarians have even been studying negative physical con-

sequences such as damage to the trachea. My basic philosophy

in training is this: If I wouldnt do it with a child, I wont do it

with a dog. I wouldnt shock or drag a child around to get him

or her to behave; Im not going to do that with a dog. I train

counselors how to train their dogs in a way thats very relation-

ship oriented, using positive reinforcement methods.

Sori: Excellent. You mentioned earlier that you can involve

animals as partners in nondirective play therapy, and Im

wondering if you could also use them in directive playtherapy, and what that might look like . . . what the differ-

ence might be in how you involve the animal.

VanFleet: Yes. In nondirective or child-centered play therapy,

children make the primary decisions about what to play with

and how to play. We provide an overall structure but for the

most part, they are making those choices. Its based on Vir-

ginia Axlines initial work in child-centered play therapy.

Its basically a Rogerian, humanistic form of play therapy

based on the principle that if you creat e a safe and accepting

environment and allow kids to make their own choices

they will play in a way that moves them in the direction

of health and healing. In Animal-Assisted nondirective play

therapy, its often the child who is deciding whether to

include the dog, and what they want the dog to do. You need

a dog whos willing to sit on the sidelines if the child

chooses that. You also need a dog with some versatility and

who is capable of learning many different things. A dog

should not mind being touched and stroked if the children

decide they want to sit and pet the dog. You want a dog who

can follow the childs lead with your help. In directive play

therapy, we have specific goals, we want the child to learn

specific things, so we will set up the situations a bit more.

We can have the child learn to train the dog, or do a number

of games and activities that we set up. So we need animals

with somewhat different personalities for directive play

therapy than we do for the nondirectivenot always, but

often to some extent.Sori: That is quite interesting. I have a question about nondir-

ective AAPT. In nondirective play therapy, the therapist mir-

rors back what the child is doing, saying, and likely feeling.

Do you use the dog as a co-therapist to reflect some of that?

VanFleet: Yes, we do. Of course, its really you reflecting

since dogs cant talk (although some dogs are really good

at doing that with their bodies). I can speak through the dog

some of the time. So if the child is pretending to kill off a dra-

gon in the corner, I might say, Oh Kirrie, hes killing

the dragon; hes really going to get rid of that dangerous

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dragon. Youre reflecting the childs feelings and what

theyre doing or what the intention of their play is. You might

do it through the dog, but not all the time; you need to give

some reflections just from you. So I might say to the child,

Oh, youre mad at that dragon, he hurt those people and

youre going to go take care of that dragon. Then I might

add, Kirrie, do you see hes got his big sword and hes

going to get that dragon? So its almost in the third person;but its all to accept and reflect what the child is doing and

the primary feelings and intentions that are in the play.

Sori: Can you share the reactions of a couple children to

AAPT?

VanFleet: Yes. I frequently notice that they stand up taller,

and they say things like, Im really good at working with

dogs. Little statements that show me they are building

their own feelings of confidence. I often see kids talk a lot

more. I see them becoming more social; they come out of

themselves. I see lots of examples of empathy, and often

it happens spontaneously, where they look at the dog and

say something along the lines of, Oh, does she have blood

on her lip? Or, Is she walking with a limp? Sometimes,theyre projecting their own circumstances onto the dog, but

a lot of times they really are paying attention to the dogs

needs. The empathy is there, we just need to capture it. That

is huge in this work and I see it happening all the time. Kids

are also surprised with how the animal responds to them.

But the most prominent things I see are spontaneous expres-

sions of empathy. A lot of kids I work with have huge

trauma and attachment problems, so those signs of empathy

indicate this is having a real impact.

Sori: Excellent. Bruce Perry has an affinity for Animal-

Assisted Therapy, especially with kids who have attachment

or trauma issues. Im hoping many more people will get on

board, because its such an exciting approach.

VanFleet: Yes. Its very exciting and I want more people and

organizations to be open to this type of work. Before we start

to see more research about AAPT need to have really well-

trained animals and counselors, family therapists, and play

therapists who can do this work well to facilitate research

in this area.

Sori: I agree, and can you talk a little bit about your studythe

study that you did on play therapists use of Animal-Assisted

Therapy?

VanFleet: Yes. I did a survey of play therapists and found

that there were a lot of people involving animals in their

play therapy work, but not all had received training. I was

concerned about that situation. In another evaluation study,

we used sand trays as a closing activity with children whenthey ended play therapy. I asked some of the people who

have been through my AAPT training programs to ask child

clients to do a sand tray, whether theyve worked with a dog

or not, and pick items that represent what it was like to come

to play therapy. This is a very simple study and it doesnt

tell us a whole lot, but what I looked for was whether or not

the children selected animals to be part of their sand tray.

What I found was that almost every child who had been

involved in AAPT did select an animal figure or two to

include in their sand tray, while a much lower percentage

of children who had been involved in play therapy without

animals selected an animal. It was like asking the childs

opinion about their therapy experience and what they liked

about it, and the AAPT children did select animals for the

sandtray much more frequently.

Sori: That is fascinating research, and very telling. Earlier

you mentioned self-efficacy. Could you go over some of

the other goals of AAPT?VanFleet: Yes. The goals that involve animals are the same

full range of goals that we have when were developing treat-

ment plans for children. There are five general goal areas

where animals are particularly useful. One is self -efficacy,

which refers to building up childrens ability to do things for

themselves, to take care of themselves, to keep themselves

safe, and to develop competenciesactual skills, such as

planning aheadhaving confidence, etc. The next area that

is extremely valuable is in developing healthy attachment

and a relationship. Children who have attachment problems

who seem not particularly empathic or caring may not have

ever had the experience of being cared for. I think its hard

for us as therapists, parents, or foster parents to expect thesekids to have empathy and care for someone else if they have

never experienced it themselves. In this type of therapy, they

feel cared for by the animals, so when we play hide-and-seek

and the animal comes to find them that gives that experience

of being cared for, and is part of the attachment/relationship

equation. Or the animal may come up and lick them and the

child thinks, Oh, this animal likes me. Part of what we can

do as therapists is help shape a healthy attachment relation-

ship for the child and the animal. We are going to help them

behave toward the animal in a way that is evocative of a

healthy attachment. The third goal area isempathy. Im talk-

ing about looking at the world through the animals eyes,

which we as therapists need to be doing, and we want to help

the clients do the same. Session questions that promote

empathy might include, How do you think the dog is feeling

about this right now? Or, I just noticed that Sailor the

Horse walked away from you when you were shouting like

that, what do you think is going on with him? In this way,

we can teach and prompt them to pay more attention to the

animals body language. So looking out for the welfare of the

animal is an important part of developing empathy. A fourth

area isself-regulation. Our clients need to have patience with

the animals, to communicate with them, to plan ahead; and if

theyre not regulated then the animals can become dysregu-

lated too. The final area is a catch-all for more specific prob-

lem resolution. We can deal with childs anxieties or phobias,

or with trauma, with anger, with aggression, with opposition-ality through the AAPT activities we choose. Ive worked

with quite a few kids who have histories of animal maltreat-

ment. I am very convinced that one of the best things we can

do is to first help them develop a relationship with the ther-

apy animal, and then extend it to the home if there are ani-

mals in the home. Once they have a relationship, theyre

not objectifying the animal (or person) theyre maltreating.

They start to see the animal as another living being.

Sori: There are many benefits for children who have the

opportunity to do this type of therapy.




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Sori: Well your program sounds excellent. Is your program the

only one that specifically incorporates play therapy, where

the animal functions as therapy partners?

VanFleet: Im not sure, but we do have a thorough program in

AAPT. There are other people practicing Animal-Assisted

Therapy or incorporating playful Animal-Assisted activities

who naturally realize that keeping it fun and playful is a

good thing. But to do it in a systematic way, using systematicnondirective, cognitive behavioral, or family types of play

therapy . . . as far as I know our training program and certifi-

cation is unique. There are a number of other play therapists

who have worked in this area. My coleader is a play therapist

from the UK who has done this work with horsesTracie

Faa-Thompson. Kay Trotter is a play therapist and counselor

who has done a lot of work melding the fields, especially in

her research and writing about equines in therapy. And I

already mentioned Cindy Chandler, who has an excellent

program at the University of North Texas and has set up a

List serve through ACA. There are a growing number of

humananimal interaction programs for mental health, such

as at Denver University, which are excellent. So Im not theonly one, but I think our program is unique in terms of utiliz-

ing a systematic way of integrating play therapy and teaching

this approach.

Sori: This is such an innovative method, and it will be exciting

to see how this specialty develops. Thank you for your time

and for sharing information about your work. This has been

eye opening, and I hope many people will get on board and

obtain appropriate training, because I think it is so enriching

to integrate animals into play therapy.

VanFleet: Well, its been a real pleasure talking with you,

Kate, and I hope so too. I hope this will be something that

more and more counselors get involved with and do research

on as time goes on.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect

to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship,

and/or publication of this article.

References

VanFleet, R. (2008). Play therapy with kids & canines: Benefits for

childrens developmental and psychosocial health. Sarasota, FL:

Professional Resource Press.

VanFleet, R., & Faa-Thompson, T. (2010). The case for using animal

assisted play therapy. British Journal of Play Therapy,6, 418.



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