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Animal Assisted Intervention & Therapy
Presented by Magdalena Nawarecka-Piątek
Yvonne Smith is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Syracuse University, where she teaches courses on clinical practice, human diversity, and human/animal interaction in social work. Her research and scholarship address human/animal interaction in clinical practice and therapeutic residential treatment for children and youth. She shares her life with two rescued pit bulls and her horse, Fable.
Dr. Helen Lewis is Program Director for PGCE at Swansea University School of Education. Part of her role involves leading an educational anthrozoology module, and undertaking original research into the impact of AAIs in educational settings. After studying animal and human behavior at university she became a primary school teacher and has worked in education for over twenty years.
Evelyn M Field OAM is an international authority on treating school and workplace bullying. For over 45 years she has worked as a counselling psychologist, providing treatment, publishing, lecturing and providing professional training for therapists, locally and internationally. Her experience with both school and workplace bullying has equipped her to better understand and implement more effective methods of treatment. She is the lead author of a unique chapter on ‘Diagnosis and Therapy’ in the Handbook of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment (Springer, 2021). Her dogs have helped her gain a better understanding of animal/human interactions and develop basic evidence-based theory in her professional practice. “Harry the Bully Blocker” is based upon the unique therapy she provided to many clients and the training she provided to numerous psychological societies over decades in Australia, Vietnam, Israel, China, New Zealand, USA, Canada, UK.
Dr. Yvonne Eaton-Stull is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in Intro to Social Work, Social Work Practice with Individuals, Social Work Practice with Groups, Animal-Assisted Intervention, Crisis Intervention and Forensic Social Work. She is also a licensed clinical social worker. Dr. Eaton-Stull specializes in crisis intervention, forensic social work, and animal-assisted social work and has provided clinical intervention to children and adults for many years. She has two therapy dogs through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs and actively provides animal-assisted intervention in various mental health facilities. She is also a member of HOPE AACR where she has provided animal-assisted crisis response following crises and disasters throughout the United States, such as the Virginia Tech shooting, Indiana Tornados and Washington D.C. Navy Yard shootings.
Dr. Cynthia Wright, DEd, is a Regional Licensed Psychology Manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. She is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania and a nationally certified school psychologist. She earned her doctorate in educational and school psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has worked with a wide variety of populations in her 27 years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She and her husband live with five Shih Tzus, two of whom are certified therapy dogs through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. They are part of Paws Hand Delivered, a therapy dog organization. They have provided therapeutic services across a variety of settings, including public schools, state correctional institutions, libraries, skilled nursing facilities, and a hospital transitional care unit.
Dr. Yvonne Eaton-Stull is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in Intro to Social Work, Social Work Practice with Individuals, Social Work Practice with Groups, Animal-Assisted Intervention, Crisis Intervention and Forensic Social Work. She is also a licensed clinical social worker. Dr. Eaton-Stull specializes in crisis intervention, forensic social work, and animal-assisted social work and has provided clinical intervention to children and adults for many years. She has three therapy dogs and actively provides animal-assisted therapy in various mental health facilities. She is also a member of HOPE AACR where she has provided animal-assisted crisis response following crises and disasters throughout the United States, such as the Virginia Tech shooting, Indiana Tornados and Washington D.C. Navy Yard shootings. Her recent research has included implementing animal-assisted interventions in state prisons to address stress and anxiety, self-harm, and grief and loss.
Mary Margaret Callahan has a MS in Technology Education from Lesley University and is the Chief Mission Officer for PetPartners, where she is responsible for leading mission delivery including the therapy animal program and grassroots advocacy program. Pet Partners is the leader in improving human health and well-being through the human-animal bond. Registering nine species of animals with their human handlers as therapy animal teams, Pet Partners teams make more than 3 million visits per year in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, libraries, airports and at employee wellness events. Pet Partners also advocates for legislation that promotes human health and well-being through its grassroots advocacy program and educates handlers and the public about the positive impact of animal-assisted interventions (AAI). Founded in 1977 and grounded in the underlying research of AAI, Pet Partners is the gold standard in therapy animal visitation and is widely credited with expanding the field of AAI. The daughter of a veterinarian, Mary Margaret grew up surrounded by pets and has a deep appreciation for the strength of the human-animal bond. She joined Pet Partners in 2013 and has worked to establish the organization as both an influencer and a resource within the animal-assisted intervention (AAI) and human-animal bond (HAB) community. In 2018 she was named one of PetAge Magazine’s Women of Influence. Mary Margaret lives on a small farm outside Seattle with her husband, daughter and menagerie of animals including dogs, cats, chickens, goats and miniature donkeys.
Nina Ekholm Fry, MSSc., CCTP, is Director of Equine Programs at the Institute for Human-Animal Connection at University of Denver where her work focuses on therapeutic human-horse interactions and on equine behavior and welfare. She is Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology and the Graduate School of Social Work, and leads the post-master Equine-Assisted Mental Health Practitioner Certificate program. Nina is the former Director of Equine-Assisted Mental Health at Prescott College and served as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Counselor Education until 2014. For the past 15 years, she has focused on horses in human services in the U.S. and Europe, specializing in inclusion of horses in psychotherapy and is a certified clinical trauma professional. Nina serves on the boards of the American Hippotherapy Association (AHA Inc.) and the Certification Board for Equine Interaction Professionals (CBEIP), and is chief editor of the HETI Journal, published by the International Federation of Horses in Education and Therapy. She has a background as a mental health practitioner providing clinical services, as a competitive rider, riding instructor, and equine behavior consultant; and as an academic professional engaged in national and international organizations for therapeutic equine interactions. She has a particular interest in ethics and social justice perspectives within the human-animal connection.
Dr. Amber Barnes is an assistant professor in public health at the University of North Florida. Her areas of research include an interest in animal assisted therapy, stemming from her work in zoonotic diseases within the One Health framework.
Shelly Volsche, PhD is a biocultural anthropologist studying the impact of social change on the structure and practice of families. Much of her research focuses on the growing importance of pets in homes without children, leading to a phenomenon called “pet parenting.” She is the author of the chapter, “Understanding Cross-Species Parenting: A Case for Pets as Children” in the book Clinician’s guide to treating companion animal issues: Addressing human-animal interaction (editors Lori Kogan and Chris Blazina; 2018). Dr, Volsche received her degree from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2017, and her book Voluntarily Childfree: Changing Kinship in the U.S. (Lexington Press) is anticipated to be released in late 2019.
Dr. Steven Tauber is a political science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. He teaches classes in American government and research methods. He publishes in the area of American politics, including the coauthored (with Paula McClain of Duke University) American Government in Black and White: Diversity and Democracy (4th edition Oxford University Press 2019). He also researches the politics of animal advocacy, including his book Navigating the Jungle: Law, Politics, and the Animal Advocacy Movement (Routledge 2016). He is currently focusing on animal advocacy on a global level.
Dr. Chastain obtained her Doctorate in General Research Psychology from Walden University and her Master’s of Education in Mental Health Counseling from Georgia State University. She is the National Director of Animal Assisted Interventions Advancement at Pet Partners. In this role she supports AAI professionals through data collection procedures to identify existing gaps in services for those who wish to vocationally incorporate therapy animals into their work.
Joan Hall has had an intense interest in and love of animals since her childhood. Early in her professional life she was an Elementary School Teacher and Remedial Reading Teacher. Later, she joined her love of animals and children and became an Instructor for the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. It was at the Cincinnati Zoo that she witnessed many profound encounters between vulnerable people and animals. Because of these experiences she became certified as a Human-Animal Intervention Specialist through Oakland University. She has initiated the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s ground-breaking Human-Animal Intervention Program by providing Human -Animal Intervention for Incarcerated Teens, At-Risk Pre-Schoolers, and Middle School students with Autism.
Colleen Anne Dell, PhD, is a Professor & Centennial Enhancement Chair in One Health and Wellness at the University of Saskatchewan in the Department of Sociology and School of Public Health in Canada. She has two registered therapy dogs and is training a third who, alongside community and academic partners, are involved in various projects with Colleen and her team. You can follow her therapy dogs on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/AnnaBelleSubiesAdventures/ or visit her webpage at www.colleendell.ca
Tiffany Banks is a graduate research assistant for Human Animal Bond in Colorado (HABIC) and a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at Colorado State University. Banks has spent her career working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Sibs, a Denver based non-fort-profit that advocates on behalf of siblings in the disability community. She completed the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in 2009, and is an active disability rights advocate locally and nationally. Banks’ research pursuits have included animal-assisted intervention and parental stress factors for psychiatric-hospitalized youth with autism, policy gaps and how they effect sibling caregivers in the United States, and best practices in multidisciplinary work for dually diagnosed youth with autism.
Animal Behavior, Training, and Handling
Presented by Mikkel Becker, CBCC-KA, CDBC, KPA CTP, CPDT-KA, BA
Tellington TTouch, a positive method for influencing an animal's behavior and overall wellness. It is a gentle, respectful method of training that helps develop trust between humans and animals and can be especially helpful for therapy animals in relieving stress and anxiety. Patti is a C.P.D.T., Pet Partners Evaluator & Tellington TTouch® Practitioner. As a retired counselor, she partnered at an elementary school with her first therapy dog twenty years ago. Currently she has an LLC providing AAT services and has volunteered with her own animals in many different venues.
Amy Johnson, EdDc, MAT, MA, LPC, CPDT-KA is the Director of the Center for Human Animal Interventions at Oakland University. She developed and implemented the online Animal Assisted Therapy Certificate Program at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, which began in 2007 and created and taught a course through the Honors College at Oakland University on the Human Animal Bond and Animal Assisted Therapy. Additionally, she developed and implemented an AAI that pairs adjudicated, at-risk and homeless youth with hard-to-adopt rescue dogs for a multi week, intensive therapeutic intervention called “Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together” (Michigan). From 2012-2014, she was co-PI on an NIHCD (Mars/Waltham) R03 study with Wayne State University (Detroit) that measured the efficacy of the AAI (Teacher’s Pet) at two residential detention facilities. She was also instrumental in getting the Competencies accepted and endorsed by the American Counseling Association (ACA) and is the co-facilitator of the ACA’s Human Animal Interventions in Counseling Interest Network and is a board member at large of the American Psychological Association’s Human Animal Interactions Section.
Emily Tronetti, MS, CTC, CPDT-KA, UW-AAB has an MS in anthrozoology from Canisius College and a certificate in applied animal behavior from the University of Washington. She is a certified professional dog trainer through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers and graduated with honors with a Certificate in Training and Counseling from The Academy for Dog Trainers. Emily is also a certified Fear Free Animal Trainer and a member of Fear Free’s Speakers Bureau. She is a special lecturer for online Professional and Continuing Education courses for the Center for Human Animal Interventions at Oakland University. Emily also owns Coexistence Consulting, a small business that offers pet training, education and consulting.
Companion Animals
Dr. Betz King is a clinical psychologist who has spent over a decade providing Animal Assisted Therapy in her outpatient psychotherapy practice long before it was common. Dr. King has been at the forefront of advocating for and creating Emotional Support Animal guidelines for mental health professionals.
Clive D. L. Wynne, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Canine Science Collaboratory. Arizona State University. He is also the author of the Dog is Love: Why and How your Dog Loves You.
Emotional Support & Service Animals
Debra A. Vey Voda-Hamilton is an attorney mediator, with significant animal law experience including civil & criminal litigation, who now focuses her practice on resolving issues involving and animal in collaborative and mediated divorces, resolutions of contract issues and criminal and civil disputes. She is a leader in the field of applying alternative dispute resolution to conflicts between people involving animals. Debra works with communities and community animal groups to help foster dialogue when issues involving feral cats, tethered dogs or animal abuse are brewing. She hosts community meetings, workshops and one on one discussions to facilitate more peaceful solution oriented gatherings. Through her work as Legislative Liason and with AKC organizations from coast-to-coast, Debra advocates and educates pet owners and non pet owners that new understanding and true resolution is real and possible for effective conflict resolution in disagreements over animals. She is a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of using mediation to resolve conflicts between people involving animals. Admitted to practice law in New York and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Presented by Leanne Nieforth, PhD, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research focuses on quantifying outcomes, understanding mechanisms, and identifying characteristics of both the humans and animals involved in animal-assisted interventions.
Amy Johnson, EdD, MAT, MA, LPC, CPDT-KA is the former and founding Director of the Center for Human Animal Interventions at Oakland University. She developed and implemented the online Animal Assisted Therapy Certificate Program at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, which began in 2007 and created and taught a course through the Honors College at Oakland University on the Human Animal Bond and Animal Assisted Therapy. She currently teaches an AAI course at the University of Chester (UK). Additionally, she developed and implemented an AAI that pairs adjudicated, at-risk and homeless youth with hard-to-adopt rescue dogs for a multi week, intensive therapeutic intervention called “Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together” (Michigan). From 2012-2014, she was co-PI on an NIHCD (Mars/Waltham) R03 study with Wayne State University (Detroit) that measured the efficacy of the AAI (Teacher’s Pet) at two residential detention facilities. She was also instrumental in getting the Competencies accepted and endorsed by the American Counseling Association (ACA) and is the co-facilitator of the ACA’s Human Animal Interventions in Counseling Interest Network and is a board member at large of the American Psychological Association’s Human Animal Interactions Section.
Grief & Loss
Dr. Yvonne Eaton-Stull is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in Intro to Social Work, Social Work Practice with Individuals, Social Work Practice with Groups, Animal-Assisted Intervention, Crisis Intervention and Forensic Social Work. She is also a licensed clinical social worker. Dr. Eaton-Stull specializes in crisis intervention, forensic social work, and animal-assisted social work and has provided clinical intervention to children and adults for many years. She has two therapy dogs through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs and actively provides animal-assisted intervention in various mental health facilities. She is also a member of HOPE AACR where she has provided animal-assisted crisis response following crises and disasters throughout the United States, such as the Virginia Tech shooting, Indiana Tornados and Washington D.C. Navy Yard shootings.
Dr. Cynthia Wright, DEd, is a Regional Licensed Psychology Manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. She is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania and a nationally certified school psychologist. She earned her doctorate in educational and school psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has worked with a wide variety of populations in her 27 years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She and her husband live with five Shih Tzus, two of whom are certified therapy dogs through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. They are part of Paws Hand Delivered, a therapy dog organization. They have provided therapeutic services across a variety of settings, including public schools, state correctional institutions, libraries, skilled nursing facilities, and a hospital transitional care unit.
Tamara Miller, PsyD is a clinical psychologist with over a decade of experience providing care to those struggling with trauma and grief. It was while obtaining her doctorate degree from Widener University that Dr. Miller first became passionate about the human animal bond. She developed TALP (Therapy After the Loss of a Pet) to address the need for focused treatment for those struggling with pet bereavement. As a clinical psychologist at Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Miller specializes in providing Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in both individual and group modalities. Dr. Miller believes in the importance of mentorship, and particularly enjoys guiding the next generation of psychologists by supervising post-doctoral residents. Dr. Miller currently lives in the Sierra Foothills with her husband, daughter, cat, and a growing number of aquatic family members.
Dr. Erdman, PhD is a professor in the Counseling Psychology program and Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education at Washington State University (WSU). Dr. Erdman has conducted research in parent/child relationships and human-animal interaction (HAI), specifically looking at the effectiveness of equine facilitated activities. She is past chair of the Section on Human-Animal Interaction, Society of Counseling Psychology, American Psychological Association. She served as a consultant on a $ 100,000 NIH Grant in 2010-2012 to measure the impact of an equine facilitated program on children’s stress levels and social competence development. She also completed studies on the impact of equine programs on social skills development for children on the autism spectrum. She works with the PATH Therapeutic Riding Program at WSU and provides programs in equine activities directed with youth, parent child teams and Veterans. She also works closely with colleagues in the College of Veterinary Medicine at WSU, particularly focused on pet loss/grief and infusing the human-animal bond into Veterinary practice. She has created an online non-credit course at WSU entitled: Human-Animal Interaction: What We Know and What We Don’t Know. Her goal is to promote the field of human-interaction within a multidisciplinary framework.
Other
Andria Corso has a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Psychology, a Master of Science in Human Organizational Science, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Research Psychology with her dissertation research focused on compassion fatigue in animal care professionals. Andria is a certified compassion fatigue educator as well as a certified leadership and career coach and consultant with over 20 years’ experience working with clients to develop leadership skills, develop themselves, advance their careers and businesses, and create whole-life success. She has worked with thousands of leaders within mid-size and fortune 100 companies and government agencies and is an expert in executive coaching, career development, leadership and organizational development. Andria is also an animal advocate and has spent the last two decades volunteering and working in animal rescue, most recently as a board member and the Director of Adoptions for Basset Rescue of Old Dominion (BROOD). She has over a decade of experience supporting individuals in pet loss and grief and a host of other emotional issues.
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