Comfort dogs bring healing in times of tragedy
Thursday, June 23, 2016 - 08:21
in Psychology & Sociology
Twelve golden retrievers recently arrived in Orlando, Florida, to bring comfort to the survivors and those grieving after the mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse. Tim Hetzner, president of the Illinois-based K-9 Comfort Dogs team, which sent the goldens to Orlando, told The New York Times that when people who couldn't get out of bed pet the dogs they "start smiling and in a couple cases, they started talking as much as they could." We asked Northeastern's Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology, to explain why the dogs had that effect and what made them helpful after this particular tragedy.