Teaching Empathy: Animal-Assisted Therapy Programs for Children and Families Exposed to Violence

A handbook for therapists, humane educators, teachers, and anyone interested in creating a safe and successful animal-assisted therapy program. Contains information, examples, and tools.

Lynn Loar, Ph.D., LCSW, is the president of the Pryor Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to the study and promotion of methods that facilitate behavioral change exclusively through positive reinforcement. She is a social worker in the San Francisco Bay Area with expertise in familial abuse and neglect across the lifespan, and in the role that cruelty to and neglect of animals play in family dysfunction and violence. She provides advocacy and training to human service and animal welfare agencies about neglect, abuse and violence affecting children, elders, dependent adults, people with disabilities and animals. She has designed and implemented humane education and animal-assisted therapy programs that teach gentleness and empathy, including the Strategic Humane Interventions Program (SHIP) and SHIP for Seniors. She is the co-author, with Libby Colman, Ph.D., of Teaching Empathy: Animal-Assisted Therapy Programs for Children and Families Exposed to Violence, published by the Latham Foundation in 2004, and with Gary Patronek, et al. of Animal Hoarding: Structuring Interdisciplinary Responses to Help People, Animals and Communities at Risk, published by the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2006. She is a frequent contributor to the Latham Letter. Libby Colman, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and author of more than ten books on the psychology of pregnancy, parenting, and the impact of animal abuse on children. Her books include the groundbreaking work, Pregnancy: The Psychological Experience with Arthur D. Colman, M.D. and Laughter and Tears with childbirth pioneer Elisabeth Bing. She has been active in Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) programs since 1988, first as a volunteer advocate for abused and neglected children, then as Program Director for San Francisco CASA.