Animal Assisted Therapy for Special Needs Children

Hello Valued Supporters

In our last report, we shared with you about how we evaluate the success of this program in an effort to constantly improve. Of-course our staff members are critical to the program’s success and we would like to share more about our team with you in this report.

VeeVee, our Program Coordinator since 2005, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Masters Degree in Social Work. She has been part of the Zoo’s therapeutic staff since 2000 and has worked in various settings within the Special Education Division. In addition to conducting therapy, VeeVee is responsible for all administrative aspects of the program including contact with source organizations, day to day supervision of the staff, acting as a liaison between the special education team and other departments at the Zoo, public relations, and financial matters.

The program is conducted by a team of 8 professional education counselors supported by a teenage/young adult volunteer staff who help care for the animals. The professional staff members all have backgrounds in social work, animal assisted therapy, special education and/or zoology. Each counselor is responsible for his or her group of participants in terms of lesson plans, assessments, communication with source institutions (including regular telephone contact with the contact person there as well as periodic meetings with teachers and management staff), and annual reports.

The team is guided by a trained psychologist once a week for an hour and a half, along with daily instruction from the program coordinator and lead therapist. The program is in a constant state of self-evaluation because counselors sit in on each other’s sessions from time to time in order to learn from each other and pick up on any difficulties. In addition, the entire team participates in weekly group seminars to discuss challenges and new ideas. Because this form of therapy tends to be more eclectic than others, taking techniques from a variety of sources rather than relying on a single system of intervention, speakers are invited to these weekly meetings in order to expose the staff to the latest research, therapeutic techniques and educational tools. Educational field trips are also undertaken to other special education facilities and institutions.

On average, two professional development seminars are conducted during the year, in which new skills are taught to enhance our therapeutic expertise. Seminar focus subjects have included the theory around a group treatment model, latest therapeutic techniques in the field (for example, the use of therapeutic cards), music therapy (we have noticed how successful the combination of music and animals can be in a therapeutic session - for example, autistic children are often able to focus better on the animals when there is also music in the background).

Throughout the year, we also host several groups of social workers, teachers and students who wish to learn more about our project – for example, we have held symposiums with multidisciplinary teams from teacher training colleges and women's shelters in Jerusalem. At one of the meetings, for example, with an explanation of the uniqueness of our project, we demonstrated a therapeutic session to a group of animal therapy students from David Yellin College during which they fed the lions and bears, so as to experience the intensity of the activities used to treat participants. From the breadth of the animal collection available to us at the zoo (ranging from domesticated animals to giraffes, elephants and reptiles), they were able to understand the advantages of our program over those conducted in petting zoos.

In addition, our therapists continued to build on the experience gained over the last few years treating Israeli Arab and Palestinian groups – this deeper cultural understanding is very important to establish trust and rapport. The availability of an Arabic-speaking therapist is a valuable resource as treatment in the child’s mother tongue is far more effective than when we are forced to utilize a translator.

The fact that in general there has been a very low professional staff turnover is a testament to their dedication and the good dynamic that exists between members of the team. Overall there is a high level of professionalism in our team, and we are very proud to witness their ongoing professional development.

We are grateful to you, our valued supporters, for making this wonderful program possible!

The Animal Assisted Therapy Team at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo