ABOUT
What is Animal Assisted Learning, Life Skills and Leadership?
Working with animals provides opportunities to teach valuable life skills such as trust, respect, honesty and communication.
Animals use mostly non-vocal communication and are in-tune with human behavior. This can help our participants to better understand and learn how our non-verbal communication and body language might be impacting or influencing others in their lives.
Animals ask people to be aware of their surroundings which creates in our participants a heightened sense of self-awareness.
We have a strong focus on the energy that humans bring to their animal interactions and work on breathing and 'grounding' ourselves before and during our sessions, creating a calm sense of being. This in turn helps our participants in their daily life skills to build resilience and a capacity to be more content and connected with the world around them and those that may be in it.
At Animal Instincts Australia we work with people of all ages who are at risk and living with disabilities or mental health challenges and we provide opportunities for them to improve their physical, mental & emotional health, social skills, knowledge, and employment prospects.
We help to show them they have choice and consent in their own lives, are valued and have something to contribute to others and the community.
With a strong focus on positive reinforcement and self-growth, we use a variety of animals in varied settings to help our participants improve in their overall well-being.
To better understand our industry terminologies on 'Animal Assisted Learning' vs 'Animal Assisted Therapy' and other terminology, please check out this page
Terminologies in the industry
Individual Sessions
One on One sessions are a great way to start working on your own self-worth, self-awareness and ability to be independent. Alongside the animals, we help you to overcome your self-limiting beliefs, fears and negative past experiences, build new skills and let go of negative thought patterns that inhibit a positive future.
We can also help to support you to identify your skills and interests in the context of potential employment options and give you accessibility to a variety of opportunities within the pet/animal industries such as volunteering or work experience.
Group Sessions...
Our small group sessions (3 participants maximum) support your self-awareness by helping you to understand the importance of community participation, social engagement and relationships for personal well being, without being overwhelmed by a large group activity.
Our group model helps shape your confidence in smaller increments to better prepare you for more social engagement within the community.
We help you to build your social skills with animals as the facilitator, imparting better awareness of body language and non-verbal communication and helping you to socialise in other areas to create your own support network.
Think of us as your 'social and animal mentors' - helping you to build skills in many different areas of your life.
We pay particular attention to the dynamics of each group we put together and work for a "best fit" approach to help promote a positive outcome for you and those in your group to develop friendships.