Canine-assisted Psychotherapy Motivation Alliance (CAP)

University of Basel

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Motivation; Alliance, Therapeutic

Treatments: Behavioral: Canine-assisted psychotherapy with dog passively integrated.; Behavioral: Standard Psychotherapy; Behavioral: Canine-assisted psychotherapy with dog actively integrated.

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05384808

2022-00304

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the study is to investigate the needed extent and the way a dog is integrated into psychotherapeutic interventions for them to be motivating and alliance building for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders aged 9 to 17 years old. Specifically, we want to elaborate if the dog needs to be integrated into the therapy in a form that it is part of the therapeutic context or if the presence of the dog without being part of the therapeutic context per se is beneficial.

Enrollment: 150 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 9 to 17 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria for children and adolescents: :

• Age between 9 and 17 years
• Children are seeing the therapist for the first time
• Basic knowledge of child and parents in either German or English to be able to fill in questionnaires
• Informed consent given by legal guardian
• Positive or neutral attitude towards dogs

Exclusion Criteria for children and adolescents: :

• acute psychosis; early childhood autism
• diagnosed developmental disorder or intellectual delay; if not diagnosed, exclusion when questionnaires cannot be completed due to development level
• fear of dogs
• allergic reactions to dogs
• reported aggressive behavior towards animals in the past

Inclusion criteria for therapists:

• working with an own therapy dog
• completed therapy training or if not completed far advanced therapy training under supervision
• working with children and adolescents aged 9 to 17 years

Exclusion criteria for therapists:

• not working with an own therapy dog
• no completed or far advanced therapy training
• not working with children and adolescents aged 9 to 17 years

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

150 participants in 3 patient groups

No dog present

Experimental group

Description:

Conventional psychotherapy with no dog being present.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Standard Psychotherapy

Dog present and active part of therapeutic narrative.

Experimental group

Description:

The dog is actively integrated into the therapeutic narrative.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Canine-assisted psychotherapy with dog actively integrated.

Dog present but not active part of therapeutic narrative.

Experimental group

Description:

The dog is present but not actively integrated into the therapeutic narrative.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Canine-assisted psychotherapy with dog passively integrated.