A pet brings joy, that’s what everybody who lives with one in a joint household knows. With its playfulness and unconditional love, it often distracts us from stressful thoughts and duties. It teaches us to live here and now, to concentrate on the present for a while. Maybe this is also a part of success of felinotherapy, in course of which cats and their cuddly nature help patients.
It is not possible for everybody to keep a dog or a cat at home. Still, it is exactly contact with cats which can do wonders for a lot of people to improve their health condition. We are talking about felinotherapy which is supposed to get patients rid of mental and somatic issues. How? Thanks to cat’s company, the human mind will get calmer and not in the least, it also develops itself.
You will surely know the saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. Felinotherapy works on a similar principle. As soon as the mind rids itself of trouble and burdens, improvement of the physical condition soon follows as well. Let us explain how does it all actually take place.
We distinguish two types of felinotherapy. Either, the cat is only present in the same room as the patient, it gets him rid of the feeling of loneliness and closer contact is up to their choice and doing, or the person strokes the animal and cuddles it in their arms. In short, direct contact takes place.
Felinotherapy effectively reduces stress, anxiety, phobias, neurosis, mental blocks and even addictions. Further, it significantly contributes to successful rehabilitation after paralysis or to development of skills of physically or mentally handicapped children.
Felinotherapy is truly important for a wide group of people. For example, thanks to the contact with animals, the seniors feel energy for life again and they aren’t feeling lonely. Other people learn through cats how to establish a relationship with the outer world and with other beings.
Felinotherapy is a cat analogy to the well-known canistherapy, which we have mentioned on the blog several times already. My personal experience is, that both dogs and cats are capable of emphathising with humans to a great degree and to get them out of a bad mood, even worse – out of depression. Whether by coming to cuddle and expressing their own limitless affection or whether by distracting you with energetic frolicking, for which they are probably never too tired. Many experts confirm, that the presence of any pet is very beneficial for the human psyche.
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