Animal Assisted Counseling
You might have used amygdala-quieting techniques if you’ve ever cared for a human baby, a puppy, a kitten, or any other vulnerable being. You automatically knew that it would help to move gently, breathe deeply, make soft sounds, and avoid scaring the creature by attempting to totally immobilize and control it.
Martha Beck • Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose
Irvin Yalom enjoins therapists not to share insights they have into their patients psyches unless doing so will be connecting. The aim for a good therapist isn’t to say the truth but to say the truth that will also be healing. Since it is his view that the relationship itself is the cause of healing, a truth that does not bring close is... See more
Sublime Zettels January 2025
In Aboriginal worldviews, nothing exists outside of a relationship to something else. There are no isolated variables—every element must be considered in relation to the other elements and the context. Areas of knowledge are integrated, not separated. The relationship between the knower and other knowers, places and senior knowledge-keepers is... See more
Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World | Are.na
The animal is not the tool; the relationship is the tool
The Polyvagal Theory posits that co-regulation through social behavior is a biological imperative—a need as hardwired into us as that for food or sleep.
Stephen W. Porges • Our Polyvagal World
Co-regulation teaches that all mammals are in the best position to stay regulated and balanced when they have consistently engaged in this behavior with others. We, as people and as mammals, attune to each other’s nervous systems. This is the reason why you can have a very meaningful relationship with your pet—without ever having to exchange any
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