Meet Jake

Jake, age 6, attended our Animal Assisted Emotional Coaching 4 week programme at school to help him with his emotional regulation and behaviours.

What is Animal Assisted Emotional Coaching?

Emotional Coaching:

Is a universal, relational approach that supports emotional regulation.
Helps children recognise, label, manage and understand emotions in themselves and others.
Is NOT dismissing or disapproving of emotions.

Added to this, Animal Assisted Emotional Coaching is:

being able to work on the above points, aided by a therapy animal to help convey the message or topic explored.

Reasons for attending: Jake was referred to HugglePets by his school because he was struggling in the classroom environment which was having a negative impact on his schoolwork and overall wellbeing.

Methods used: Jake was a very creative child with a big imagination. This was utilised in sessions by engaging with emotion craft activities and fun board games exploring emotions. Jake enjoyed engaging in discussion which gave him multiple opportunities to reflect how different behaviours related to emotions.

Animals that helped: Jake is a big animal fan and this was shown when he attended his sessions with his toy monkey Jim. Jake enjoyed meeting all of the animals he saw but he especially enjoyed the week when Murphy and Jim joined in to play an emotions board game with us.

Outcomes: The aim of Jake’s sessions were to help him identify what it is about the classroom environment that he doesn’t like and to help him identify how he feels about school. Once he was able to identify how it makes him feel, he was able to practice regulation techniques such as using fidget toys when feeling anxious to help relieve his worries.

What activities were used: Activities such as mindfulness colouring and decorating a self-care box gave Jake a space to be creative and have informed discussions around his emotions. Jake wasn’t aware of self-care before attending sessions, so he was very excited to add more things to his box when he got home.

What useful tips for home/school were identified: Through discussions in session, it was identified that Jake is able to spot the things that make him feel worried when this is spoke about with an adult. School were provided with feedback that encouraged them to support Jake when talking about his worries through regular check ins.

If you are interested in booking our Animal Assisted Emotional Coaching programme please contact us here.

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