Animal-Assisted Intervention: Thinking Empirically

This book brings the animal into the scholarly discussion of animal-assisted therapy and other interventions. Challenging the current reliance on outcome studies, the author offers a new way of thinking empirically about animal-assisted interventions—analysis of human-animal interaction as a critical component. Through empirical demonstrations from laboratory and applied settings, the book encourages practitioners and scholars to undergo a deeper examination of the basic interactions that occur between clients or patients and therapy animals. Dr. Fournier provides new ideas on measurement, experimentation, and interpretation of human-animal interaction, aimed at identifying the role of the animal in interventions for human health and well-being.

About the Author

Angela K. Fournier is Professor of Psychology in the College of Individual and Community Health at Bemidji State University, USA. She is a licensed psychologist and certified mental-health specialist in equine-assisted psychotherapy and learning.