Animal-Assisted Therapy in Kansas City

Sarah Hanson of Hearts Pursuit Ranch in Lone Jack and Susie Arbo of Country Crossroads Counseling with several locations between Blue Springs and Warrensburg discuss canine- and equine-assisted therapy with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves.

Animal-assisted therapy tries to improve a patient’s social, emotional, or cognitive functioning with appropriate interactions with animals as part of the treatment.  It has been recommended for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, sexual abuse victims, dementia, autism, and other conditions in hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and other facilities.  Research has documented improvements in mood, feelings of isolation, and physical functioning. Organizations promoting high quality animal-assisted therapy include the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH).

Copyleft 2023, Sarah Hanson, Susie Arbo, Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.


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