Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT)  or popularly called pet therapy is relatively a new form of therapy technique that is being introduced in psychotherapy. This technique focuses on the interaction between a trained pet and the person and how it helps them with their emotional recovery. 

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The animals chosen for this therapeutic technique are often cats and dogs, however, your therapist would assign different pet animals with reference to your treatment requirement. 

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Pet therapy comes with a lot of healing benefits. It helps to reduce anxiety, stress, and anger and helps to balance out your emotions. It also tends to improve your nurturing and social skills. Pet therapy is known to drastically elevate your moods as petting animals would help the brain to release hormones such as serotonin, prolactin and oxytocin, which help to make you feel happy. 

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In addition to this, pet therapy also helps you to find comfort and would reduce the feeling of inherent loneliness. This technique is found to be extremely beneficial for people who suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s disease etc, as well as physical ailments such as heart-related and blood-pressure-related issues. 

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Pet therapy would also help you to build your self-esteem, and give you a sense of empowerment as you are given the control to take care of and spend time with the pets assigned to you. 

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