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Biological Treatments

Major Schools of

Psychotherapy

Evaluating Psychotherapy

Psychology in the News,

Revisited

Taking Psychology With

You: Becoming a Smart

Consumer of Psychological

12 Treatments

of having a panic attack in public, but whenever her heart

started racing, she would reach down and touch her dog.

She was even able to fly across the country to visit her son

before his deployment to Afghanistan.

Organizations in many states have begun providing ser-

vice dogs like Angel to help soldiers recover from PTSD.

Their efforts are part of a nationwide trend of animal- assisted

therapy, also known as pet therapy, designed to help people

Use of Dogs for Vets With PTSD is growing

WASHiNgTON, DC, January 4, 2013. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY)

has officially introduced a bill, H.R. 183, the Veterans Dog

Training Therapy Act, which has been referred to the House

Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

The bill directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to imple-

ment a pilot program that would evaluate the effectiveness of

training and using service dogs to improve the mental health

of returning war veterans, with a particular focus on helping

vets suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The

bill’s 40 cosponsors include Republicans and Democrats,

and it is one of the few issues on which they agree.

Many soldiers returning from duty in Afghanistan and

Iraq suffer from severe medical and emotional problems. Lt.

Col. Kathryn Champion was one of them. She had served

27 years in the Army, but after a particularly horrific tour of

duty in Iraq, during which five soldiers under her command

died, she began to suffer the symptoms of PTSD. When she

returned home, she fell into deep depression: A virus she

contracted in Iraq was killing her optic nerves, causing her to

go blind; her Army career was finished.

Then Champion found an organization that matched

her with a guide dog, a golden retriever mix named Angel.

Just two weeks after their training together ended, Angel

began helping Champion with her psychological problems as

well as her blindness. Champion was terrified of flying and

Psychology in the news

aPPRoaches to

tReatment and

theRaPy

Kathryn Champion, who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder and

anxiety attacks after returning from duty in Iraq, with her dog Angel.