The Benefits of Dogs on Mental Health

Please welcome our guest writer, Jessica Brody from ourbestfriends.com.

Photo via Pexels.

It will come as no surprise to most people that dogs make people happy. However, the effects of canine interaction go beyond a simple mood lift. According to Time, dog owners tend to live longer, happier and healthier lives. If you are suffering from a mental health disorder, getting a dog may just be the best thing you could do to help. Read on for tips from Dr. Nicole Galante on how to determine if a dog can provide the healing and comfort you need. 

How Can A Dog Help?

While many other animals can and have been used for emotional support, dogs remain the most popular option for a few reasons. 

• Playing with and cuddling a dog fulfills the human need to touch and provides a soothing effect on the brain.

• Dogs are highly empathetic. They can tell when you are down and feel compelled to help.

• Their playful attitude can be a positive influence and a relief from the stresses of life.

• Dogs push people to go out the house, offering plenty of opportunity for exercise and socialization (e.g: training classes, playdates, dog park visits), both of which are great for mental health. 

• They can relieve loneliness for people who live on their own.

• They provide a sense of responsibility and, for people with severe depression, a reason to live and to get better.

Which Dog To Choose?

Not all dogs are perfect as emotional support animals and some are more suited to some disorders than others. If you have depression, you need a dog that is happy, excitable and loves to cuddle. You can opt for a more high-energy breed, but they should be trained to behave in public. According to Bustle, good examples include Labradors and Golden Retrievers. If your mental health issues are related anxiety or PTSD, you still need a dog that enjoys physical contact, but you may need a calmer breed. Saint Bernards, Corgis and Dachshunds are good options.

Overall, any dog that is calm and likes human contact is ideal for mental health support. You should also consider other aspects such as time, budget and activity to choose a breed that fits in with your lifestyle. 

Therapy Dog or Pet?

Therapy dogs for people with mental health illnesses vary slightly from the service dogs used by people with physical disabilities, which are trained to fulfill specific tasks. An emotional support dog doesn’t have to fulfill a specific purpose: They’re just there to make you happier. This distinction is important because despite what many people think, therapy dogs do not have to be allowed into private businesses like service dogs do. The main benefits of therapy dogs are being entitled to live and travel by air with the animal. 

If you decide a therapy dog is the right choice, you’ll need to obtain a letter of recommendation from your therapist or doctor. A professional should give you a letter based on whether they feel a therapy dog would help you and whether you are in a condition to maintain one.

Prepare Your Home for a Dog

Once you’ve made the decision to bring home a furry friend, you need to gather all the necessities. This includes a bed, possibly a crate, a leash or harness, a collar, food and water dishes, toys and dog food. If you have a large backyard that’s unfenced, it would be wise to consider installing a fence. Particularly if you’re bringing home a younger dog with a lot of energy. A fenced-in area offers a place to safely play, and it provides protection for your pup. Bear in mind that when you want to have a fence built, it’s important to order a land survey. Knowing the exact measurements of your property boundaries will ensure you don’t infringe on your neighbors, which can lead to pricey legal disputes. 

There’s a reason why dogs have consistently been man’s best friend for millennia. Even our oldest ancestors, when domesticating wolves for things like hunting and protection, benefited from the companionship a dog can bring. Dogs are unfalteringly loyal, unconditionally loving, and intelligent enough to understand sadness, empathy, and comfort. When you add the fact that they are furry, adorable, and a delight to spend time with, it becomes obvious why they are an incredible source of mental health relief. 

In your continued efforts to find balance, consider healing therapies offered by Dr. Nicole Galante. Through sound or healing sessions or even guided meditation, Dr. Galante wants to help you on your healing journey. 

20 Hawks

Ever have a time when a few chapters in your life where everything feels stagnant? No matter how much you try to meditate, try to change your surroundings, fight off the urge to run, basically just try to see things differently, just to feel something that is different than the “funk” surrounding you, the “funk” that is within you? It is difficult to sit with your own energy, especially when the world around us feels like a slow hamster wheel.

I have been lost many times along my way, and while I do manage to spend time every single day outside due to the needs of my animals I don’t always take enough time to just be in my surroundings, soaking in the messages from nature.

Have you ever been traveling somewhere and seen a bird, deer, dragonfly or raccoon? Did you ever take a moment to think in that the exact moment about the message that came along with seeing that animal? Being present in the moment is the best way to allow your energy to be open to receive the spiritual gifts that are presenting themselves to you.

Last month, the energy during Mercury Retrograde was heavy for some, almost feel like having blinders on, or basically treading water. It was during this time spirit reminded me to take time to be in my surroundings, to “see” what animals and messages that where coming my way.

It was a random day of the week, it felt no different than any other day, except I noticed a hawk sitting in a tree. All of a sudden my heart felt lighter. I felt my energy shift, as hawks represent the ability to use intuition and higher vision in order to complete tasks or make important decisions. Within an hour and a half, I had seen 14 hawks, and by the time the sunset, I had seen a total of 20.

Up until that day, I had been feeling stuck. These bird messengers gifted me with a new perspective, a sense of clarity and a big hug from the spirit world and beyond that there is never a moment my soul is left alone. It was extremely powerful, and a reminder to be present, to keep you heart open and be willing to be uncomfortable in your own skin, for it is a way to shed off a few energetical layers to reveal something new.

While I have my own spirit animal through my shamanic work, every encounter I have is a message from the spirit world and is gifting me a piece of wisdom I need to have in my life. Take a deep breath, ask for help when you need, look around and you will be surprised what you see.

The Love That You Are

This month the theme of love and the shining of our light that carries our love has been a theme, and how very timely this theme has been. I also mentioned, sometimes the love that surrounds us is hard to see, but really love is always with you. Some of us love ourselves implicitly, some of us love passionately everyone around us, but forget ourselves. Some days we are both of these people. Either way we benefit when we give ourselves time, attention and our own love.

You know that I love to be outside no matter the season, to have the sun on my face, my feet on the ground and surrounded by animals. Here I can close my eyes and come back to myself, remember the love that I am, and that I have for myself. It is these beautiful moments like this that I would like to be able to help you with, to find or remember that place within yourself where your sun shines, where you can ground yourself and be the part of nature and love that you are.

To do this, I have a few suggestions for a meditation for finding a place of peace to look inward, towards your heart and finding love there. A love for yourself and the grace to receive it unconditionally. Your heart holds the light that allows you to see the Love That You Are.

Where do you feel the most relaxed and at peace? What are your ideal circumstances for comfort, healing and safety? Can you physically be there? If so, great! If not, making yourself comfortable and envisioning yourself there is a wonderful place to be as well.

Please start with getting to your space and getting comfortable. Take three deep breaths and start to notice your surroundings. Slowly ask yourself: What do you see? What do you hear? Do other senses come into play? Make sure to acknowledge and enjoy what brings you this ability to ground and enjoy the calm and peace that surrounds you.

When you have settled into this place take notice of in what part of your body does this awareness take place? On your skin? In your mind? In your heart?

Let’s try to bring that awareness to your heart. Bring the peace, warmth and contentment you have in this space to your heart. This may take some practice. If you need to place your hand over your heart to start with, just bring one aspect of what you are feeling there. In time more will follow. This is where the light of your love shines, it shines right there within you. This love is for you and it is you. Take your time there, getting to know this love and that it is really you. Let it spread throughout your body as your heart beats, let it grow, let it fill you, and let it spill over into the world.

Welcome your love back to yourself, welcome yourself back to yourself.

Carry this light within you where ever you are or go, and remember these sensations of love for what they are, You! The more you visualize and remember who you are, the easier it is to hold this understanding and bring it forth.

I do this daily, as there are many distractions in this world that can make it easy to forget to remember myself, and as many teachers say, on the days where I don’t have time, I do it twice.

All My Best,

Dr. Nicole

Let me tell you about Miss Rosie…

Miss Rosie was rescued when she was about 10 months old, she is now 16.  Miss Rosie spent 10 years of her life on a downeast farm where she was the family milk cow. Chances are if you lived in Downeast Maine during this time, you had milk from Rosie.  She was treated like a queen, she had three little girls who grew up painting her hooves and dressing her up.  Rosie had 4 calves over the years and she became the “farm pet.”  As the children grew and life changed, the family decided not to have a farm anymore, it was a Full Time Job, and they were adjusting to their family’s growing needs. They thought long and hard about “what to do with their beloved Rosie.

That is where Mike and I enter the picture.  The family asked if we could give Rosie a “retirement home”.  Besides having some backyard chickens, which is a blog for another day, we decided to welcome Rosie to our home.  Neither of us ever had livestock, I actually grew up in the city, and honestly we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but we were all in. 

We got Miss Rosie a barn, I painted her some signs and  made it her home. We learned that the Feed and Seed was now our favorite new place to shop for the essentials for a queen. In the years Rosie has been retired I have learned many more things… It’s her way or NO way.  During the winter she will not come out of her barn, unless you bring snacks and snowshoe her a path.  In the summer she prefers two fans, as one requires her to turn back and forth from her face to her bum, but if she has two it’s almost like AC.  She loves apples, she loves scratching her neck on all the trees, she hates fly spray, will tolerate a bandana, and will never turn down a brushing.  She loves when the school bus shows up with a group of kids, and on those days it’s always about her.  Rosie has also enjoyed the garden club, when they came she was a star, and the flowers decorated her. There also was another group of artists that brought their easels and paints and sure enough Rosie did not disappoint. 

Rosie also happily goes for walks, and she never turns down attention. She is very social.  I learned that Rosie loves men, I mean LOVES them.  She turns into a total flirt, her head down and kicking up dirt and then blowing at them all. I have left patients laying on my chiropractic table because the neighbor called and Rosie was out running the neighborhood. 

Rosie’s great to talk to if you need a good cry. She can take all of your weight, give you warmth, and always listens until you are good and done with all that you have to say. Rosie has listened to it all, all my woes and all my excitement. Rosie will endlessly “help” Mike clean her stall, but she likes it done her way. I assure you that Mike’s words are sometimes colorful, but she just lets his words go, and keeps right along “helping” in her own special way,

Rosie has been a pure joy, I have looked out and seen her playing with the deer, I have pulled porcupine quills out of her head, but I told her she made the best cow-icorn ever.  She’s one of the loves of our lives, she’s a rock to anchor us, she makes sure we get out everyday and most days lets me process my day with her, aloud or to myself, but I’m there in the barn with her.  She gives me the space to bring me back to myself. There has not been a minute we have not enjoyed her spirit and energy around our home, and she helps make our house, home. 

When people ask what do you have for pets? I have a list that I go through and when I get to Rosie I say, “We have a 1,200 lb dog.” 

“All My Best.” - Dr Nicole

My First Sign Of Spring

I’ve been waiting for the first robin of spring.

I’ve seen the water running underneath its crust of ice, mosses starting to become a brighter green, seen the ground heave and have had the frost crunch and sink under my feet. Still, I’m waiting for that first robin of spring.

I find myself inquiring if anyone else has seen this elusive sight of spring? I have received a lot of no’s and not yet, but many recall maybe that they have heard a friend make mention of it.

I go for walks, start the yearly clean-up of the backyard, and greet the sun while listening to all of the song birds, waiting to hear the robin join in…not yet, I’m still waiting, where is that first robin of spring?

It’s been warm enough to hang out laundry - twice, baby chicks and ducklings should be here next week, and the seeds that my family have planted have all germinated inside, right next to our sunniest window. There is still not a robin insight.

So, today I’ve done the animal chores, checked the email situation, made breakfast, and started to think that it maybe nice enough again to hand out some laundry, oh no I didn’t start the machine…as I walk to the laundry room and glance out the window…oh my, yes!!! There he is! I look about the house to inform everyone that it has finally happened, the robins are returning! Spring is here! There’s one in the garden! However, no one is about at this moment, it’s mine alone, a meeting of Spring just for me. I walk outside, hoping that he is still there, and he is…all in his red-breasted glory, hopping about my dormant garden.

Right now all signs of Spring are to the contrary, snow starts to spit and there are even bits of hail coming down, but I find that my soul is taking solace in this moment. The robin hops and pecks about the bark mulch bordering my garden, gives a quick chirp and a nod, then he is off. I relax and sit in the quiet of this moment, wipe the snow that’s leaving wet, cold kisses on my cheeks and know that spring is on its way.

Maybe next time the robin will be here long enough to pose for a photo, until then I await his return.

What is your sign that Spring is finally here?

Taking a Moment for Me

These past 2 weeks have been a challenging ones! I need to take a moment for myself, and let go some of the things that are on my plate. I just really needed to share that this happens to me too, as well as remind you to take time out for yourselves when things become overwhelming.

So, this week I’m sharing some of the moments that I have captured on camera. These remind me why I give to myself. So, I may enjoy the beauty that surrounds me, and remember that I am a part of it and share it with those I love.

Be Patient, Give and Accept Love, Experience the Beauty Where You Are…

…and maybe a little dream of spring…

New Healing Support Appointments

I have sat with the question this spring on how to move forward in my offerings to support you in your healing journey. I found myself drawn towards tools and practices that support the mind, body and spirit together. This work is with the energy that the body receives, holds and releases. This work will assist in getting your body’s energy to move throughout it fluidly and balance this energy within the body, as well as assist with shifting it to be in tune with your body’s healing process.

Listed below are the new healing support appointments I will be offering:

New - 60 Minute Sound Healing

Clearing and lifting your energy through sound.  Bath yourself in vibrations of my crystal bowls and additional musical instruments. We will work on aligning your energy with the vibrations of healing and love. Welcoming the highest good for your body, mind, and soul.

New - 60 Minute Energy Healing

Through my Shamanic practice, I have learned there are many different energy healing modalities.  Here, I will work with the many tools I have acquired as we explore healing on many different levels for your body, mind, and soul. During this time I will call on and direct energy into the areas where it is needed most for your healing. We will work with this energy to actively bring forward what is needed to assist you in healing and to learn how you can continue the healing work you need to do going forward.

New - 30 Minute Guided Meditation

Assisting you to become grounded, aware of yourself, aware of your healing needs and to empower yourself to explore calling on the energy needed for your own body, mind, and soul.  Meditations are used for many different needs, whether they are physical, energetical, or spiritual, they assist in calling in the energy to help your body vibrate or towards vibrating on the healing level that it needs. This guided meditation also assists you in being mindful of your needs and moving towards the healing that you seek.

Please see the booking page for pricing information and availability.

All My Best,

Dr. Nicole