Dr. Boris Levinson

Therapy has been a mental health concept that has been around for a while. Many people either fully support therapy and many people don't fully see the benefits of it. However, during the 1960s, the very first formal research involving animal therapy begun by a man named Dr. Boris Levinson. Dr. Boris Levinson found that his dog had a very positive effect on mentally impaired patients. He was the director of human animal companion therapy and had many great discovering's throughout his career. He noticed that humans were more comfortable and were more likely to socialize with his dog than with other humans. The noticeable changes in human behavior when interacting with animals is the main reason why Animal Therapy has become such a huge part in today's therapeutic practices. Initially a lot of Levinson's peers dismissed his work and didn't understand why animal therapy would be something he would want to focus his study's one. Levinson ignored the skeptics and in 1969, he wrote a book titled "Pet-Oriented Child Psychotherapy," which helped establish himself as the father of animal-assisted therapy. Eventually more and more psychologists started to hear about animal-assisted therapy and eventually started to incorporate animals into specific therapy sessions. Levinson even started to conduct surveys on psychologists and found out that 16% of them started to use companion animals in therapy sessions. Levinson died in 1984, but his practice of animal therapy is still extremely relevant and used in the world today. He was such a wise psychologist and really was the blueprint for the creation of animal companion therapy. 

 

https://www.therapydogs.com/animal-assisted-therapy/