Canines Teach Compassion is the name of The Human-Animal Connection’s class where we bring Therapy dogs into high school classrooms to teach kids to treat themselves – and each other — better. You can’t be compassionate towards others if you are constantly judging or criticizing or comparing yourself to others. Students learn how to train therapy dogs and at the same time come to appreciate how each dog learns a little differently, as do they. Students see the differences in the dogs (who are all shapes, sizes, colors, and breeds) but also come to see what unites them – they are all dogs. In this way students learn to support their own need to be unique as well as to fit in. Dogs teach lessons in Love that are beyond words in the Canines Teach Compassion class.
EPISODE NOTES: Canines Teach Compassion – Empathy for Animals Makes Us Better People
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Genie Joseph, PhD, is the Executive Director of The Human-Animal Connection, a 501c3 organization dedicated to bringing people and animals together for the benefit of both. The Human-Animal Connection offers free therapy dog visits to veterans, Active Duty, Health Care Providers, and anyone experiencing stress in the field of Service to Others. Canines Teach Compassion is our high school program with therapy dogs that reduces stress by over 60% in just one hour of structured interaction. We also offer educational classes and zoom sessions to help people deepen their connection to animals, increase empathy, and facilitate cross-species communication. Genie is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and creator of The Act Resilient Method and author of the book by that same name. Act Resilient, which works with Therapy Animals, has been presented to over 4,000 Service Members and their families, and for this work, she was given President Obama’s Volunteer Service Award. And her team at Tripler Army Medical Center was given a National Award for Workplace Resilience from the American Psychological Association. She is a dog trainer, Animal Chaplain, and Animal Communicator and volunteers at various animal rescues and shelter, and shares her life with two miniature therapy Donkeys, Rosie and Lilly, and her rescue therapy dogs, Sophia, Harry, and Bailey, who have brought smiles to many humans.
