Animal Assisted Therapy

Our sessions are delivered with the highest standards of care, professionalism, and safety in mind:

• Run by a fully qualified teacher and animal-assisted therapist
• Registered practitioner and active member of the Complementary Medical Association
• Fully insured (£10million public liability)- certificate available upon request
• Permanent staff are fully DBS checked
• Permanent staff are paediatric emergency first aid trained
• Risk assessments available on request

Laura is a fully insured and qualified CMA (Complementary Medical Association) practitioner. She received a distinction for her Animal Assisted Therapy Diploma in July 2022.

She gained her PGCE qualification in Primary education in 2016 and was a teacher for 5/6 years before starting Our Animal World in 2022. Laura decided to combine her love of animals and her experience from both mainstream and SEN schools to help her younger clients (as well as adults) to bring a complementary form of intervention to improve children, young people and adults’ well-being and mental health.

What is Animal Assisted Therapy?

Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) helps to create a safe place to explore feelings, express rooted issues, process trauma and heal.  All at the individual's own pace, enabling them to achieve therapeutic success themselves.

AAT is essentially a guided interaction between a trained animal (and their handler) and a client receiving treatment for a condition or who needs health-related assistance. It has gained popularity as part of integrated medical treatments for a variety of different mental and physical health conditions, such as cancer, cerebral palsy, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and heart disease.

AAT is not just about bonding with an animal and feeling happier having spent time together. It involves a set of sessions that are formally structured to be integrated into the client’s existing treatment plan, aiding in reaching their overall goals. It is personalised according to the client’s treatment objectives. Therapy sessions are also well documented and form part of tracking the client’s recovery or healing progress.

AAT doesn’t rely on an animal to ‘do the work’ for the client.

Activities may include feeding, petting, bathing, grooming, playing, creating enrichment, creating art based around the animal and learning facts about the individual animal.

AAT is an engaging experience, allowing physical contact (touch) through interaction, which often comes with a sense of achievement (a positive accomplishment which is beneficial for many treatment or rehabilitation programmes).

Animal therapy started out with household pets such as cats and dogs. Now the therapy also includes more exotic animals such as snakes, rabbits, bearded dragons and birds. The interaction with different creatures helps stimulate the client’s brain. The therapy helps people cope with adverse situations, to settle and comfort people. Studies show that animal-assisted therapy helps to combat depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, loneliness, autism and PTSD. Michele Morrison, in 2007, covered some of these in her study called ‘health benefits of animal-assisted interventions'.

What animals do we use?

Our Animal World allows the use of a wide variety of animals to suit the individual’s needs. We have two cockapoo therapy dogs (Coco & Lottie), we have rabbits, guinea pigs and hedgehogs. We also have a variety of reptiles which are suitable, such as our snakes (royal pythons, boa constrictor, corn snakes, Japanese rat snake), bearded dragons, tortoises, geckos, salamanders, millipedes, stick insects and lots more weird and wonderful reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates! With over 70 different species on offer, there will be something for everyone!

Laura assesses the individual’s needs and takes into consideration their allergies/likes/dislikes/interests to tailor a course suited to everyone.

What happens during a session?

This very much depends on the individual. It could be helping to take care of the animals such as giving baths, feeding, handling, grooming or even dog agility with one of our therapy dogs Lottie. It could also include art/crafting activities such as foam clay or bag design, or playing games- whatever the client needs to feel relaxed and comfortable.

Number of sessions

We offer block sessions of 6, 12 or more sessions.

Having blocked sessions allows us to get to know the individual and create a bond with the client enabling the sessions to be tailored to their specific needs/requirements as well as the client creating a stronger bond with the animals.

How block sessions work

If you select the block of sessions (6-12 weeks), it works as follows:

• The Initial Assessment is informal, and its purpose is to establish how Animal Assisted Therapy might work best for the client. It is a short 20-30 minute meeting for us to establish likes, wants, and needs and importantly to determine which therapy animal(s) or nature/animal-based activities might be best suited to the client. This session also intends to build the relationship with the client and build trust in the Practitioner and the animal(s). This first session is also vital to establish any safety mechanisms for the animals. (e.g. a person with restricted mobility or dexterity might need additional support to ensure animals are safely interacted with). With young prospective clients or extremely nervous clients, we may arrive with pictures of our animals to show and gauge responses before introducing the animals in person.
• Using the information gathered from the Initial Assessment and EHCP (if present), we will then create a guide for the next few sessions with the client’s goals in mind. These are not set in stone due to the fact that every individual responds differently to approaches, tasks, etc, and so each session is adjusted accordingly as we proceed.
• Typical activities depend on the age and needs of the client. They can be more hands-on with animal care (grooming, feeding, bathing, etc) or they could be more creative (creating a clay model of the animal, natural collages, painting or creating enrichment for the animal) or they could be more sensory (feeling a variety of animals, etc).

How much does it cost?

A block of 6 sessions PLUS a 30-minute initial assessment* = £650                              

*First session is 30 minutes, where Laura will get to know the client, talk about which animals they like/dislike and start to create a professional relationship with the client

A further block of 6 sessions = £600

When and where are the sessions?

We run our therapy sessions every Thursday and Friday at our home base, IP13 7PQ, in our very relaxed therapy room. It may be possible for us to attend your own home if needed. Please ask re cost and availability if this is something you would require. We currently run sessions at the following times on both days:

• 9.30-10.30 am
• 11.00-12.00 pm
• 1.00-2.00 pm
• 2.30-3.30 pm
• 4.00-5.00 pm

Please note that it may be possible to do times outside of the above, please ask and we will see what we can do.

How do I refer my child/myself?

You can either self-refer and self-pay or be referred through an outside agency/body.

How do I book?

Email us info@ouranimalworld.com or call us on 07519 340788 for more information or to book your initial assessment today.