Animal-Assisted Therapy Critique

Animal-Assisted Therapy in Mental Health Settings (Article critique by Erika Brown)


My thoughts on Erika's paper:

The article that Erika researched found that animals can bring the much needed aspect of unconditional positive regard, or the feeling of completely accepted no matter what one does, into a patient's life. I particularly liked the fact that, throughout the strengths portion of the critique, Erika not only stated what the strengths were, but also explained why each was a strength. The section over the weaknesses could have used some work, as most of the weaknesses stated were weaknesses of animal-assisted therapy and not of the research presented. The application that Erika did to how animal-assisted therapy can be applied to recreation therapy was also very good, as it showed that the two can be used together although certain precautions should be taken.