Animal Therapy or Therapy for Your Animal?
Emotional relationships go in both directions, even with your pets.
Story and Photos by Jordan Brotamonte
A woman sits by the entrance of a senior nursing home. The door swings open to reveal paws padding to the table. A dog looks into the woman’s eyes, gently placing his head in her lap. She delicately strokes his fur. A few breaths later, tears fall from the woman’s eyes.
In another building, a cat rests atop its owner’s lap, communicating with the healer on the opposite couch. The cat waits, eyes following the healer’s movements, as the feline’s inner turmoil is translated for the owner.
The bond between humans and pets runs much deeper than partnership and affection. While animal therapy aids humans, what if the roles were reversed and the animals were the ones needing the therapy? Also known as animal communicators, pet psychics work to understand the connection between people and pets on a spiritual and telepathic level.
Patricia Herlevi is a reiki master and animal communicator for Buzz and Bark Animal Reiki and Communication, specializing in animal reiki — energy healing to reduce animal stress and promote relaxation — and sound healing. Herlevi connects with pets to channel how they feel and what they wish to communicate with their owners. In doing so, she distinguishes what causes the animal distress and prioritizes their needs. “I'm putting the animal advocacy first, and my mission is to get the relationship between the human and the animal in a good, safe place for both of them,” Herlevi said.
Black, a Rocky Mountain Trail horse, in his stall at the Windy Acres Farm | Photo by Jordan Brotamonte
Herlevi’s work focuses on how pets mirror their owners’ behavior and moods through their actions. Clients come to Herlevi to address their pets’ behavioral issues, only to discover that their actions were directly tied to human behavior.
Herlevi recalls the time she fostered a dog while facing anxiety herself; the dog was constantly anxious too. When he was adopted into a family with no history of anxiety, his condition almost completely disappeared. “It dawned on me; the poor dog was just in this anxious environment and was mirroring everybody else’s state of mind,” Herlevi said. “It’s important for people to be able to name their emotions … when the human is at peace, the animal’s gonna be at peace.”
Animals are highly attuned to human emotions and prone to high stress levels and behavioral issues due to the hyperstimulating environment. “Animals don't push down anything; they just feel what they feel. But sometimes they'll feel what we feel,” Herlevi said.
As a result, animals can adopt these emotions as their own and, in turn, harm their mental and physical states.
“So it's just getting them to that space of feeling safe and secure, the same things that we want,” Herlevi said. “All the things that matter to us matter to them.”
Herlevi emphasizes humans’ role in creating a safe environment free of their emotional turmoil and stress. “Animals care deeply about their humans. So if their humans are struggling with a disease, a bad marriage, grief or loss, they take that on,” she explained. “They think we want them to take it on, so we have to reassure them… it’s kind of the same thing when you have kids. You don’t want to bring all your adult dramas into the room.”
“Animals don’t want to deal with trauma and drama unless they’re trained to do it,” Herlevi said.
Some animals are trained to do exactly that. Animal therapy — also known as animal-assisted therapy — involves trained mental health specialists who work directly with animals to address physical, emotional or psychological health issues in the human patient.
Medical studies through UCLA Health and National Institutes of Health have shown that animal-assisted therapy and contact with animals improve people’s mental and physical health while also providing emotional aid and camaraderie. For instance, petting dogs has been shown to lower blood pressure, release endorphins and reduce stress.
Whatcom Therapy Dogs is a local organization that practices animal-assisted therapy.
The network connects volunteer therapy dogs and their handlers with the community to provide emotional support and companionship. Enzo, a 3-year-old flat-coated retriever, has been a therapy dog there since October 2024.
Enzo’s handler and owner, Kathleen Laughlin, has worked with Whatcom Therapy Dogs for over 15 years and is now the co-director. She has been involved in pet therapy since 2008.
Sonja Wingard visits Black, a Rocky Mountain Trail horse, in his stall at the Windy Acres Farm in Bellingham, Wash., on Feb. 12, 2025. The gelding joined the Unbridled Spirit 7 herd in 2021, where he’s worked with countless students on emotional healing and their mental well-being. | Photo by Jordan Brotamonte
The team has visited over 12 locations throughout the county, including nursing homes, stores, organization events, hospitals and schools, including Western Washington University. Western hires therapy dogs from Whatcom Therapy Dogs during Kindness Day and finals week each quarter to provide students with emotional support and an outlet to relieve stress from tests and assignments. The dogs offer students a safe space to relax and calm their nerves by allowing them to pet the dogs in a quiet area on campus.
“Sometimes pet therapy doesn't necessarily involve words,” Laughlin said. “Sometimes it's just the dog being there and the person petting the dog. There's no real words.”
While communication between canines and people might not involve actual talking, their assistance reflects a sense of ease and calmness for human emotions. Simply knowing that the dog is there solely for one’s emotional well-being is a comfort in itself.
Laughlin witnessed this unconditional support during a trip to a Texas nursing home with her previous dogs years ago, where they saw a woman moving her hand rapidly back and forth on a table. Sensing that she wanted someone to visit with her, Laughlin and her dog George sat with the woman without exchanging words.
“She took her hand off the table and put it on George’s head, and started petting him. She never said a word,” Laughlin said. “It was such a profound impact that I’ll never forget. It lasted maybe three minutes.”
Horses are another common therapy animal, known for their strong intuition and ability to mirror human emotions. Unbridled Spirit 7, an equine-assisted learning and therapy organization at Windy Acres Farm in Bellingham, provides an emotionally safe environment for clients to work through mental blocks with the help of horses. Their mission is to promote animal-human connection and wellness through equine therapy methods.
Sonja Wingard, the executive director and program director of Unbridled Spirit 7 and co-founder of Animals as Natural Therapy, has been working with horses for 40 years. While Wingard’s profession works with experiential learning, she believes that the horses are not trained to communicate with humans, but rather the facilitators are training themselves to watch horses for shifts, patterns and unusual behaviors. For instance, a horse yawning several times in a row could indicate that the visitor needs to release something.
“When I worked with veterans, I had horses yawning a lot because some of them would come pretty tightly wound… one time a horse yawned 12 times with somebody in a row,” Wingard said. “Whenever you see something unusual, you pay attention… the facilitators are training themselves to notice how the horse is responding.”
Although these facilitators and animal therapists do not communicate with animals on a telepathic level like pet psychics, they can distinguish the animal’s behavior reacting to the human’s emotional state. They recognize how the horses’ actions echo what the person is feeling.
Kathleen Laughlin and Enzo go through their nosework therapy training exercise at the At Home store in Bellingham, Wash. on Feb. 8, 2025. Laughlin likes to bring Enzo and other dogs she’s training to the At Home store because they are dog-friendly and provide a safe place for the dogs to practice their skills to become therapy animals. | Photo by Hannah Quinton
Wingard recalls a 16-year-old boy who’d been in foster care for 12 years and was constantly running away. When his case worker brought him to Unbridled, the horse picked up on the boy’s distress and started throwing himself against the gate. Wingard explained to the boy how the horse sensed his fear and as a result, she suggested that he take deep, slow breaths like he does when he wants to run away.
“The boy started to get less scared,” Wingard said. “Then the horse quit throwing himself at the fence, and he looked over at us, came over, and put his nose in the boy’s chest as if to say ‘thank you for saving me from that monster.’ He didn’t know what the monster was; he just knew the human was scared so there must be something to be scared of.”
When they connect, a level of trust and understanding is formed. Listening to the animals and trusting their insight allows humans to adapt their behavior to improve their state of mind.
Animal therapy and pet psychics strengthen human-animal bonds by establishing trust, providing mutual comfort, and promoting both of their well-being. As some humans experience emotional distress they cannot control, animals can aid in the healing process through their presence and unconditional support. In turn, the humans can spiritually return the favor.
“The bond between animals and humans is more prominent now than it’s ever been before,” Herlevi said. “Animals have a lot of love in them. Sometimes you have to coax it out… it might take them longer to trust, but once they open up that trust, they’re so loving.”
Albeit different, the practices highlight the emotional connection shared between animals and humans. Whether a person seeks companionship and support through the animal’s presence or a pet adopts their owner’s mental struggles, the pair exhibits a deep understanding of each other.
Communication is possible, whether you’re speaking with words or barks.