I am especially indebted to my husband, Ben, for his understanding, patience, and willingness to take on additional responsibilities in order for me to complete this work. I am grateful to my three wonderful children, Adam, Joseph, and Cecilia, who still do not understand the sacrifices they graciously accepted so that I could complete my Ph.D., but who I hope will be inspired to pursue their education. . their full potential. I am also grateful to my parents, John and Mary Ellen, whose faith and love have provided the foundation for all that I have been able to achieve; to my sister, Heather, who always gave me a challenge to rise to; and to my many relatives and mother-in-law who have all supported me throughout this chapter of my life.
This study examined the difference between the counselor's empathic response with and without a therapy dog in their counseling sessions, was examined in a within-subjects design. A 2 (dog presence) X 4 (level of empathy) analysis of variance was used to evaluate the difference between counselors' empathic response. The hypothesis that the therapy dog would have a beneficial influence on the counselors' empathic response was not supported by the results.
INTRODUCTION
Blankley (2003) and Olex (2002) reported on qualitative studies, including consultant reports, on the impact of therapy animals on handlers. In addition to other factors, the impact of the animal on the handler was examined through semi-formal interview questions about the. The downside was that working with an animal was more demanding, as the therapist had to work harder to meet the animal's needs and responses as well as those of the client.
Olex (2002) also conducted qualitative research into counselors' perceptions of the role of animals in therapy. Although she specifically targeted the development of client empathy, the data presented two out of nine themes that reflect the animal's impact on counselors. This study examined counselors' empathic response in conditions with and without a dog present, to attempt to shed light on this unique aspect of the role animals can play in therapy.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Beck and Katcher (2003), two theories have attempted to explain the positive influence of animals on humans – the biophilia hypothesis and the social support theory. The researchers hypothesized that "the presence of pet dogs during the stressful task provided a type. The dog-only group also scored higher on social skills than the cat-only groups and the groups without dogs and cats.
Empathy has been applied to counseling techniques and is an important part of the theory of counseling put forward by American psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1950s (Empathy, 2003). Carl Rogers defined empathy as “the therapist's sensitive ability and willingness to understand the client's thoughts, feelings, and struggles from the client's point of view” (Rogers, 1980, p. 85). Phase one involved “the inner process of empathetic listening, resonance and personal understanding” on the part of the counselor.
His response is not appropriate to the mood and content of the client's statement, and there is no determinable quality of empathy, therefore no accuracy at all. He is completely attuned to the changing emotional content of the client; he senses each of the client's feelings and reflects them in his words and voice.
METHOD…
All subsequent client counselors used a therapy dog in their sessions as deemed appropriate, and all sessions including and without the dog condition were used for analysis. Dependent variables included the level, from one to five, of the counselor's empathic responses and the number of empathic responses at each level. Sam, a Labrador, participated in sessions with clients during the animal-assisted therapy component of clients' treatment plans.
Sam qualified as a certified therapy dog under the regulations of the Pet Partner Standards for Dog Assistants. Sam was purchased at the age of two through a program that trains dogs to assist children and adults with disabilities (for example, the dogs provide balance for those with physical disabilities, signals for those with hearing disabilities, companionship for children with autism and assistance with the healthcare providers). Three faculty members from the school psychology department of the university where the study was conducted underwent extensive, intensive training provided by the service dog trainers.
The first condition was that the therapy dog was present for part of the session and not present for part of the session, so that treatment conditions could be compared within the same session. AAT was used for approximately half of the total session time during a session (e.g., 20 minutes of AAT in a 45-minute session). The counseling sessions were structured as 45–50 minute sessions, and the therapy dog was usually brought into the room at the beginning or middle of the session and usually stayed there for 10–30 minutes.
The clients' administrator initially gave permission to videotape the counseling sessions for the supervision and training of the clinicians. The IRR was determined by comparing each coder's ratings for the session with the trainer's ratings using Cohen's d analysis. Other coders dropped out of the training process due to timing; they have not fulfilled the IRR by the end of the academic year.
See Table 2 for a description of the training sessions and reliability data collected from each coder.
RESULTS
The two ANOVAs included an analysis of the utterances per minute scores and the percentage of the total utterance scores. Ratings for Level 1 utterances per minute for the dog condition for all counselors were combined and all counselors' ratings for the no dog condition were also combined. There were 18 sessions with Child Y and 21 sessions with Child Z that met the criteria for coding and were included in the analysis (N = 39).
Only the counseling session containing dog and no dog conditions within the same session were used for the analyses. Sphericity was assessed using Mauchly's test and was significant for the main effects of Empathy Level and Dog Presence X. The effect sizes for both Dog Presence and Empathy Level were in the wide range of Cohen's proposed descriptors for partial eta squared (Richardson, 2011).
The power for the main effect of Honda Presence was 97% and the power for Empathy Level was 100%, both indicating a high probability that the observed difference is a real difference and that the sample size was sufficient. Furthermore, the post hoc comparisons showed that when the dog was absent, the number of responses at Level 1 and Level 3 were equivalent (Ms: 1.66 vs. 1.56, respectively) (see Table 3). Again, the Mauchly test was significant for the main effect of empathy level and the Dog Presence X Empathy Level interaction, and the Greenhous-Geisser correction was applied for these F's.
A pattern similar to the utterances per minute analysis was found using a Bonferroni post hoc comparison for the simple effect of dog on empathy levels. As a result of more Level 1 judgments when the dog was present, Level 2 and Level 3 judgments were significantly lower in the dog's present condition than in the dog not present. No significant difference was found between Level 4 scores with and without the dog present (See Table 4).
Following the analysis, a visual assessment of the Level 1 utterances in the video coding records was performed to better understand the reason for the observed significant difference.
DISCUSSION
After a review of the coding data, it appears that the most common of these additional utterances of low sensitivity in the presence of the dog were commands and praise given by the counselor to the dog. In the play therapy sessions in this study, dialogue was limited by the less personal focus of some of the activities involved. They had to engage young children without imposing too much of the counselor's preferences on the child's choice of games, role-play scenarios, and conversation topics.
In addition to the clients and counselors used in this study, the third participant, a single therapy dog, also presents a limitation of the generalizability of this finding. Finally, the rigor of the coding process was somewhat limited by the availability of coders. EXAMPLE: the helper communicates no awareness of even the most obvious, expressed superficial feelings of the helped.
The helper may be bored or disinterested or simply operating from a preconceived frame of reference that completely excludes the helper(s). While the helper responds to the expressed feelings of the helper(s), he does so in such a way that he draws noticeable influence from the helper's communication. The helper may communicate his own ideas about what might be going on, but these are not consistent with the helper's expression.
The helper's expressions in response to the expressions of the person(s) helped are essentially interchangeable with those of the person helped, in that they express essentially the same affect and meaning. EXAMPLE: The helper responds with an accurate understanding of the superficial feelings of the person being helped, but may not respond to or misinterpret the deeper feelings. In summary, the helper responds in a way that does not detract from or add to the expressions of the person being helped.
The helper's responses significantly augment the expressions of the helpee(s) in such a way as to express feelings at a deeper level than the helpee was able to express. In summary, helper responses add deeper feeling and meaning to expressions of helping. EXAMPLE: The helper responds accurately to all the deepest and most superficial feelings of the helper.
