The dolphin’s healing smile

The use of animals to heal people was introduced in Ukraine five years ago. Animal-assisted therapy is now an accepted method of psychological rehabilitation, and psychologists are especially interested in dolphin-assisted therapy, which is becoming increasingly popular. A special dolphin section will soon go into operation at the Odesa Dolphinarium. Here specially trained and good-humored dolphins will treat children afflicted with infantile cerebral palsy (ICP), autism, and oligophrenia (mental retardation). Experts believe that apart from restoring psychological balance, dolphins bring children aesthetic delight and heal their mental wounds. Viktor LYSENKO, director of the International Institute of Dolphinology in Yevpatoria, Crimea, couldn’t agree more. He told The Day about the specifics of dolphin-assisted therapy.

COMMUNICATING WITH A DOLPHIN HEALS THE SOUL

Dr. Lysenko, to what would you compare the effect of dolphinology?

Generally speaking, dolphin- assisted therapy works on the snowball principle: as a small snowball rolls on the ground it soon becomes huge. The same happens to the knowledge and skills of sick children. Dolphins give them a push and activate mechanisms that in turn activate the cerebral cortex. This therapy may also be compared to working a thread through the eye of a needle. Children with mental disorders withdraw into themselves, ensconcing themselves in impenetrable shells, and are thus unable to develop. This is particularly characteristic of autistic children and those who have suffered psychological traumas. Adults’ attempts to establish contact with them are ineffective; hence the relationships between such children and their parents are purely formal. For example, in response to their parents’ questions autistic children just nod in agreement or negation.

Communicating with dolphins is the needle that penetrates their shell and prompts such children to communicate. Just as a needle pierces cloth and drags the thread with it, so a child establishes contact with the dolphin- ”child.” As other specialists and new methods are added to the course of treatment, the child opens up and becomes ready to communicate with the surrounding world.

What positive changes do children experience after communicating with animals?

Often, children’s emotional breakdowns are so severe that they simply need additional emotional spurs. For example, six-year-old Mykolka from Teteriv near Zhytomyr (the names of all the children in this article have been changed to protect their identity) never talked before he was given dolphin-assisted therapy. His parents expected that his first word would be “daddy” or “mommy,” but the breakthrough was so strong that the boy amazed everyone by saying a much more complicated word: “dolphin.”

We most often work with children who have speech problems. Before his dolphin sessions, not only did Mykolka never talk, he never drew. After the first couple of sessions he changed entirely. He made several drawings every day, began writing poems, and called his grandmother every day, sharing with her the day’s experiences, particularly swimming with the dolphin. In other words, we succeeded in launching his communication system to the extent that the child not only began to talk, but also showed creative talent.

Since our institute has international status, we treat children from Ukraine and abroad. I remember Alionka from Khabarovsk (Russia). She also had speech problems, but after a course of dolphin- assisted treatment she revealed her artistic talent. Although she still has problems speaking, she has learned to understand the surrounding world and express her emotions through her sketches. In fact, her talent won her second place at a children’s art exhibit in Japan. Maybe someday her pictures will become known throughout the world.

DOLPHINS ARE NOT CLOWNS

How would you explain the effectiveness of dolphin-assisted therapy?

Our positive results are explained rather simply: the cerebral cortex of sick children starts functioning actively. When they compare their EEGs before and after dolphin-assisted therapy, psychologists and pediatrists will assure you that a similar effect could have been achieved only after three to four months of intensive neurological treatment in a clinic.

However, the main thing that a child receives from communicating with a dolphin is feelings of joy and harmony. We know that children laugh and are charged with positive energy when they see something funny, like circus clowns. But the dolphin is not a clown. The child becomes happy and begins laughing because it starts producing happiness hormones. Communicating with the dolphin helps the child feel the joy of life. Often this method of psychotherapy helps children who have been revived from clinical death. Of course, this experience has its consequences. For example, a boy named Vasylko from Lviv oblast could not walk normally, his eyesight was impaired, and he couldn’t speak. After the dolphin sessions his lower limbs began functioning normally. He laughed so heartily that people observing him had the impression that they were watching the happiest child on earth.

Is it correct to assume that dolphin-assisted therapy is prescribed on a strictly individual basis?

Lysenko: Naturally, the duration of every session depends on the child’s disease. The exercises are selected accordingly. For example, with children suffering from ICP the emphasis is on movement exercises. They deal with the dolphins one-on-one, play with them, stroke them, toss balls to them, and so on. While they are playing games, they are being closely observed by coaches and dolphin therapists, who are responsible for the children’s safety and supervise every exercise.

A few of the children’s relatives are always present on the platform, usually the people most trusted by the children. Often it is a grandmother, aunt, sister, or brother, rather than a father or mother. Family members undergo compulsory training and are taught how to comment on the session in the pool, what to say to help the child, and so on. We must all act in a manner that is familiar and friendly to the child. In this warm atmosphere the child begins to treat the dolphin as a friend. Children begin to look forward to the sessions, knowing that the dolphin will never betray them and will show his big friendly grin. If you take a close look at a dolphin, you get the impression that it is constantly laughing. So a child always sees the marine animal as a friend who is always laughing.

Besides out-of-water activities, children spend a lot of time with the dolphins in the water. They wash their tails, kiss them, listen to their songs, and ride on their backs. The pool exercises also depend on a child’s illness. For example, children with bad legs often do their exercises on a dolphin’s tail, which they have to straddle. Since a dolphin has to keep wagging his tail to swim, the children receive a kind of hydromassage.

Do the dolphins undergo training for their work with children?

Lysenko: All our dolphins must at least know how to do the same exercises that the children have to master. They must also perform them smoothly and steadily. Some dolphins are trained simply to give rides to people or they perform in aqua shows. In contrast, our dolphins never move quickly, they never make sharp turns. Otherwise the children wouldn’t be able to do their exercises with them. For example, by the time a child with ICP extended his hand to a performing dolphin, the animal would be in another part of the pool. Or if a sick child tries to take hold of the fin of a dolphin trained to work with adults, the child will get nothing from this type of contact but a scare. So our dolphins are very smooth, slow-moving, and peaceful animals. We teach the dolphins — and the children — to move smoothly and slowly. Basically, our therapy is body-oriented, and it is aimed at relaxing children and restoring their balance. It is no coincidence that mothers soothe their children by stroking them gently, restoring peace and quiet to their hearts and minds.