Students of the Master’s in Animal-Assisted Therapy completed the module on assisted interventions with sea lions and dolphins at the Río Safari Foundation (in Elche, Alicante), an ISEP collaborating entity.
Sea lion-assisted therapy is a complementary treatment, highly recommended for children with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, or ADHD, among others, which improves their well-being and that of their family, as it increases their self-esteem and mood, promotes communication and contact with other people. The Río Safari Foundation is a pioneer in offering sea lion-assisted therapy in Spain, and ISEP leverages its experience to train the students of its master’s program.
In sea lion-assisted therapy, these animals become facilitators of therapeutic processes and a focal point that helps us contribute to the person’s overall development. With autistic children, it aims to foster visual contact with the animal, their habituation to a strange environment and a new element, which is an exotic animal, and impulse control, since many of them suffer from hyperactivity. In contrast, when dealing with children with cerebral palsy, the purpose of this therapy is to seek their sensory, visual, tactile, and auditory stimulation through physical contact with the sea lions, encouraging these children to touch different parts of their bodies. It also aims to improve children’s cephalic (head) control, postural control, mobility of upper and lower limbs, as well as counteract spasticity (or postural rigidity), which is very pronounced. And this is just one example of its many uses, many of which are still to be explored.
ISEP’s Master’s in Animal-Assisted Therapy is pioneering due to its interdisciplinary nature and collaborates with 17 entities, foundations, and associations related to the world of animal-assisted therapies, allowing our students to be in contact with the reality of the profession and the families who experience them.