What Teens Learn Through Animal Assisted Therapy
Through guided sessions with both the therapist and the therapy dog, teens practice:
Expressing themselves with confidence
Making eye contact
Reading nonverbal cues
Initiating and ending conversations
Managing emotional reactions
Sadie, our Saint Bernard therapy dog, is a trusted partner in this process. She helps teens feel grounded, comforted, and unconditionally accepted.
From Therapy Room to Real Life
Once teens feel safer expressing themselves in therapy, those skills begin to generalize to other areas of life:
Talking with friends
Participating in class
Handling disagreements
Trying new activities
Feeling more confident in social situations
Animal assisted therapy helps teens build social skills that aren’t just “talked about”—they’re practiced and felt, one moment at a time.
🐾 How Animal Assisted Therapy Helps Teens Build Social Skills
Why Social Skills Matter During the Teen Years
Animal assisted therapy helps teens build social skills at a time when social connection is everything. For teens, relationships shape self-esteem, emotional regulation, and mental wellness. But anxiety, trauma, neurodivergence, or low confidence can make building these relationships feel scary.
That’s where animal-assisted therapy steps in. At Animal Assisted Counseling of Indiana (AACI), we use the warmth and presence of therapy dogs like Sadie to help teens ease into connection—without pressure, fear, or judgment.
How Animal Assisted Therapy Creates Social Growth
Animal assisted therapy helps teens build social skills through safe, structured, and emotionally supportive interactions. The presence of a calm therapy dog promotes:
🐶 Nonjudgmental interaction
💬 Modeling communication and boundaries
🌱 Calm emotional regulation and connection
💡 A natural pathway to building trust
A 2020 meta-analysis found that animal assisted therapy significantly improves communication and social engagement among participants, especially youth with anxiety or developmental challenges (ResearchGate).
How Parents Can Support Social Growth
You play a huge role in your teen’s social-emotional growth. Here are a few supportive steps you can take:
Offer calm, encouraging feedback after social moments
Validate their effort, even when it’s hard
Help role-play common situations
Encourage low-pressure opportunities for connection (volunteering, pets, peer groups)
The Child Mind Institute explains that social anxiety often begins between ages 8–15, and early support makes a lasting difference. They offer helpful tips here:
🧠 Child Mind Institute – What is Social Anxiety?
Animal Assisted Therapy Helps Teens Grow Confidence—One Tail Wag at a Time
We believe every teen deserves to feel safe, accepted, and capable of connection. When talk therapy feels intimidating, a soft paw and a gentle presence can bridge the gap. Animal assisted therapy helps teens build social skills by creating a space where they’re allowed to grow without fear.
If your teen struggles socially, know they’re not alone—and they don’t have to figure it out by themselves.
🐾 AACI is here to help—with heart, hope, and a very lovable dog.