Dolphin Therapy: Benefits And Controversy

Animal therapies have proven extremely useful for all types of diseases or pathologies. Dolphin therapy is one of them, and is used to treat people with physical or mental dysfunctions. Dolphin-assisted therapy is carried out in specialized centers or authorized areas of water parks, where doctors and psychologists collaborate with the dolphin and the patient.

Among advocates of this practice, therapy is recommended for its calming effect or the advancement of mental activity in people with illnesses.

What is dolphin therapy?

Dolphin therapy involves a patient, a dolphin (which is usually of the “bottle nose” species) and a team generally made up of psychologists and / or doctors. It is, therefore, an aquatic therapy, in which sensory activity is emphasized.

It is usually done in children with special conditions, such as autism or psychomotor disorders. However, this kind of therapy is also given in adults with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Therapy has various forms, durations, and locations. There are water parks, for example, that administer this kind of therapy in individual and personalized interaction programs (depending on the needs of the children). Other centers are specialized in different therapies, including dolphin therapy. In some centers, the program is even developed virtually, thanks to the recent access to VR (virtual reality).

This therapy has its origin in some English studies carried out on children with autism, who benefited from swimming with dolphins. Later, the American doctor John C. Lilly carried out experiments with dolphins applied to children with mental dysfunctionalities. Through a posterior encephalogram  , Lilly determined that her language, mood, and movement benefited from the experience.

Likewise, the scientist David Cole attributed to the sound of the dolphin ultrasonic frequencies that stimulate the central nervous system, through the cavitation hypothesis. There are, in turn, other experiments that relate this cetacean communication system with the human neural network.

What are the benefits of dolphin therapy?

In addition to those described, dolphin therapy has numerous benefits, according to its supporters. Among them is the promotion of endorphin secretion by the action of ultrasonic waves, which greatly affects the patient’s mood. Thanks to this action, attention deficit or anxiety disorders would also improve. Regarding the physical benefits, the confluence of the aquatic environment and the presence of the animal could help mitigate the pain caused by physical injuries or consequences of addiction to various drugs.

In any case, the benefits refer mainly to mental, emotional and physical well-being. It has been shown that contact with animals helps in the treatment of all kinds of intellectual, physical or social dysfunctionalities, and it is common to find dogs in centers where these programs are developed. It is also proven that the affection of a pet benefits the little ones. In addition to giving them the feeling of responsibility, it improves their empathy and they are a source of unconditional affection.

Controversy around dolphin therapy

This kind of therapy is not without controversy and disagreements between two groups, mainly:

• The community for animal rights: For animal advocates, any form of confinement of wild animals is reprehensible. In the case of dolphins, an undomesticated species, they reject capture and confinement in water parks and zoos. In that situation, they argue that the human benefit does not matter if it is at the expense of the dolphins.
• Discrepancies among the scientific community : not all scientists agree on the influence of untrasonic waves on the human neural network, since there are no specific studies on this hypothesis. It is also important to note that there is no clear evidence, for example, regarding permanent improvement over time of autistic symptoms

Be that as it may, we must not underestimate the fact that contact with animals benefits us, in a certain way, spiritually and emotionally. Although it is difficult to accurately measure the impact of this contact, the truth is that the results achieved to date have been very positive.