EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS (ESA)

Animals have brought upon a wide amount of contentment and love to many individuals for an extended period of time. The warming nature of having the support of a loving animal can create a worthwhile difference in one’s life. Often, emotional support animals can positively impact mental health through continuously providing therapeutic benefits to those in need. These animals have brought upon immense comfort for those suffering from anxiety, depression, and overall mental illness.

Animals, such as dogs–who are commonly used as emotional support animals–have the outstanding ability to understand our body language, tone, and actions. Due to their passionate demonstration of empathy towards people, emotional support animals can truly create an unforgettable feeling towards fulfilling one’s emotional needs often. They can bring upon a wide variety of improvements. These include an increase in social skills, higher self-esteem, feelings of being safer and acquired comfort, motivation, decrease in symptoms of illness, and a feeling of self-purpose.

It’s important to note that Emotional Support Animals are different from service animals, though. Service animals are legally allowed to accompany their owners at all times, whereas emotional support animals are only protected for housing situations and on flights. Also, service animals are trained and certified, whereas emotional support animals don’t require training or certification.

Emotional Support Animals can benefit those suffering from:

• PTSD
• Mild to severe anxiety
• Agoraphobia (fear of being outside of the home)
• Aerophobia (fear of flying)
• Depression
• General Anxiety Disorder
• Stress-induced situations
• Social shyness

Analyzing and acknowledging your own mental health conditions is the first part towards reaching an emotional support animal. Once your needs are fully understood, after a minimum of two sessions, the next step is receiving a written letter and taking the step to having your support animal closer than ever. Through the written Emotional Support Animal letter of prescription, your own pet can become certified as well. By going through the proper parts to fully acknowledging mental illness and striving towards treatment, an emotional support animal letter can make all the difference. The extra feeling of comfort, nurturing love, and happiness can be all one needs to overcome certain obstacles and feel an effective difference.

Some of our therapists require a minimum number of sessions to assess you and the need for an ESA letter. We cannot guarantee that you will qualify for a letter.

We are proud to offer this service at My LA Therapy!

RESOURCES

1. APA
2. ESA Doctors
3. Healthline
4. Service Dog Certifications
5. SimplePractice
6. Doggypedia