Engagement of the animal therapy in the rehabilitation of sociall y maladjusted youth: advantages and opportunities

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of animal therapy in the rehabilitation of socially challenged youth. Personality of troubled young adults can be characterized by some deficits: poor school competencies, low self-esteem, problems to communicate with other people (regardless of their age), a distorted picture of the world which leads to misunderstandings in interpersonal relations, helplessness in difficult life situations; finally lack of self-control, disability to delay self-gratification, impulsiveness and egocentricity. When combination of such negative personality features occurs, very often traditional rehabilitation techniques fail. This is the sufficient reason for engaging alternative approaches aimed at helping socially maladjusted youngsters. The publication contains characteristics of some selected methods of the animal therapy, mainly the ones that engage animals such as dogs, cats and horses. It reveals some advantages of this ancillary and natural method as well as beneficial influence of animals on the negative personality traits of youth with behavioral distortions.