By Dan Bodene, contributing writer
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| OU's Animal Assisted Therapy Certificate Program has been expanded with a new course in the Honors College. |
Therapy can take many forms – even four-legged.
Oakland University’s School of Nursing (SON) recognizes this fact, which is why it offers an innovative program to teach health care workers, teachers, counselors, social workers and other professionals how to incorporate animal assisted therapy (AAT) into their work.
Amy Johnson, administrative project coordinator in SON, leads the AAT Certificate program, which is in its third year at OU and has been extended with a new course in the Honors College.
“The program is heavily focused on research and practical results,” said Johnson, who holds master’s degrees in teaching and counseling. “We know this type of therapy works – we can see it.”
Oakland’s AAT Certificate program centers on the therapeutic value of synergies between humans and animals. Forms of AAT have been used for hundreds of years – many 18th-century reformers noted that children could learn to control bad behaviors from the act of caring for an animal.
Nowadays, AAT is used to provide therapeutic benefits for at-risk children and adolescents, the elderly, the critically ill and other special-needs groups. The benefits also extend to those who provide AAT services, giving them another way to help others.
Oakland’s AAT Certificate program is offered online, although meetings with local experts and visits to animal sanctuaries, shelters or farms are also required.
Coursework consists of five eight-week modules, beginning with an introduction to AAT and culminating with a Capstone project. Modules are taught by Johnson; Cindy Sifonis, associate professor of psychology; Marilyn Mouradjian, adjunct instructor of nursing; and C.J. Bentley, director of operations and dog behaviorist at the Michigan Humane Society.
Graduates can use their new AAT expertise in many parts of the country, Johnson said. This year, students in OU’s program hail not only from Michigan, but also Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and South Africa.
Johnson said the AAT Certificate program was an outgrowth of a non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together, that she founded in 2005 with a friend.
Teacher’s Pet matches at-risk youths with hard-to-adopt shelter dogs in 10-week dog training workshops. At the same time that they are helping shelter dogs become much more adoptable, student trainers learn empathy, compassion, teamwork, affection and other positive behaviors.
“Kids coming from these environments don’t often have a chance to do good things,” Johnson said. “They feel like they have to be tough and unfeeling. This gives them an opportunity to show their good side.”
Teacher’s Pet and the AAT Certificate program are a natural fit for Johnson. As a child, her family took in lots of stray dogs, and she admits, “The rescue thing came early for me.” Later, she paired her empathy for animals with a love of teaching.
With a bachelor’s degree in English from OU, Johnson worked for a brief time in the media business. However, she had always worked with children as a youth counselor, teacher’s aide and day-care staffer. Some time after earning a teaching degree, she returned to Oakland to earn her master’s in counseling.
Johnson said Linda Thompson Adams, former dean of SON, encouraged her to publish data from her work with Teacher’s Pet. The AAT Certificate program became a way to “train more trainers.”
“Our program at OU is growing steadily, with five to 10 new inquiries every week from around the country and around the world,” Johnson said. “I’d like to keep growing this program, and make it more research-oriented. You have to have research to show the field’s validity.”
For more information on Oakland’s AAT Certificate program,
visit the website. Information on Teacher’s Pet is available at
Teachers Pet Michigan.
