Hearts in Harmony teams give children and adults the opportunity to find a safe harbor for acceptance and love in the soft furriness of a dog. What do you do?
Hearts in Harmony teams visit facilities serving abused and at-risk children in the Tyler area. We also serve Hospice of East Texas, providing support and comfort to staff, patients and families of the terminally ill. Registered teams, consisting of owner and dog, offer unconditional love. The teams also teach empathy, respect, trust and a host of other life skills to the children who have not learned through traditional channels. We also offer learning about humane treatment of animals, since early childhood abuse can lead to later animal abuse – it is a part of the cycle of violence. What is Pet Therapy? Animal assisted activities are goal-related activities that improve the quality of a person’s life through the use of the human-animal bond. We use the term Pet Therapy, because the general population more easily recognizes it to mean animals visiting with human clients. Animal assisted therapy, on the other hand, is used as part of a treatment process for a client (goal-directed and
