Praxis Der Kinderpsychologie Und Kinderpsychiatrie最新文献

For Adolescents with personality impairments it's often difficult to accept therapy offers. Personality impairment may be preceded by (early childhood) trauma, which undermines trust in others.Thus, adolescents with traumatic experience often have limited motivation to start psychotherapy, also due to the greater need for autonomy and the process of detachment in this age phase. However, adolescence is a particularly sensitive period, as personality impairments may consolidate and personality disorders (PD) develop. To address low trust and lowmotivation in adolescents with high risk for or already full PD an animal-assisted group therapy adjunct to individual mentalization-based therapy was developed and piloted. Two groups with a total of eleven patients each were conducted, four of whom agreed to talk about their experiences with animal-assisted therapy in an interview after completion of therapy. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively and evaluated with regard to the aspects of what the adolescents liked and disliked, what expectationsweremet or unmet, andwhat effects the adjunct intervention had on the adolescents' therapeutic success.The categorized statements are discussed related to the theories of human-animal interaction according to Hediger et al. (2019) and a new hypothesis about animals as teambuilding catalysts could be established. In sum, alpacas were perceived suitable as therapy animals for adolescents with personality impairments.

Ever since, people live in contact with nature and animals, even in relatively non-utilitarian ways. Erich Fromm and Edward Wilson termed this human universal "Biophilia". But why different species can live together in a social way, is explained by a "common social toolbox" of neural, psychological and physiologicalmechanisms, which evolved over phylogeny.Major components of this toolbox are found in the vertebrate brain, which evolved over the past 600 million years in a succession of key innovations and conservative preservation.The tegmental and diencephalic brain hosts a 450 million year old, structurally and functionally virtually unchanged "social network" which, in crosstalk with the mammalian prefrontal cortex or the analogous bird forebrain, enables complex social behaviour - within as well as between species. In addition, this toolbox features common principles of behavioural organization, including the expression and reading of emotions, as well as shared emotional, stress and calming systems. Such a common ground for social behaviour also explains the potential effectiveness of animal-assisted interventions in a wide range of pedagogic and therapeutic settings. However, positive effects aremostly revealed by experience and plausibility, whereas studies on animal- assisted activities and interventions according to biomedical scientific standards are still rare.

Attachment theory is known as an important therapeutic foundation. Establishing a secure attachment to a caregiver is equally relevant for the mental health of both humans and dogs. A bond can be formed between humans and dogs that is comparable to the attachment between mother and child. Patients with adverse attachment experiences often struggle to maintain stable relationships due to internal working models. Building a therapeutic alliance can also be challenging. On the other hand, establishing a relationship with a dog seems to be successful for patients with adverse attachment experiences. Inclusion of a therapy dog provides them with the opportunity for experiences of trustful relationships.These experiences can then be transferred to the therapist. Later on, internal working models of the patients can indeed come into play in the relationship with the dog. The resulting patterns of relationship can become visible in the interaction with the dog. Within the therapeutic triade of patient, therapy dog and therapist, these patterns can be reflected and integrated into the therapy process. However, achieving this requires a targeted and professionally grounded use of the dog. If dogs are employed with a therapeutic purpose but without professional guidance, there is a risk of reestablishing insecure attachment patterns, which could potentially lead to more disadvantages than benefits for both humans and dogs.

The article describes how a dog can be integrated into a psychotherapeutic process. Dogs react to momentary moods and functional abilities of patients and therapists and help shape an emerging "scene" according to their assessment if they are free to express themselves and are not reduced to a function.The therapist can verbalize the patient's way of shaping the interactions and use it to promote the ability tomentalize. Central therapeutic techniques are "reflective seeing", reflection on the scene and the therapist's attitude. After the general description of the concept, the special features of therapy with children and their caregivers are presented.

The effects of horses and dogs on disorder-specific behavior were examined in amovement-oriented behavioral training for children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders. This was done using two behavioral experiments, a two-group experimental plan and a three-group experimental plan, in a within-subject design. In small group settings (3-4 subjects), a total sample of N = 13 was examined in two experiments. In Experiment I, an equineassisted therapy session was compared to a therapy session using an additional person as a control condition (the horse is replaced by a sports student).This experiment was carried out three times in a small group setting with a total of nine subjects (n = 9). In Experiment II, an equineassisted therapy session was compared to a dog-assisted therapy session, using an additional person as a control condition (sports student). Experiment II (n = 4) was carried out once with a small group. In both experiments, symptom-oriented behavior was assessed by Conner's scales and by physical activity measured using accelerometry. As a control variable, the attitudes towards horses, dogs, and sports teachers were recorded by drawings and verbal statements.The results show that in both experiments, the equine-assisted therapy session reduced symptom behavior.The results of accelerometry indicate a superiority of equine-assisted interventions, as physical activity in the equine-assisted setting was lower than in the settings assisted by dog or human, which is considered a desired behavior change in hyperactivity.