Dog-assisted interventions to reduce stress

The URJC starts a stress and anxiety management project, offering students animal therapies for the next exam period.

Nora Fernandez Fernandez

The Rey Juan Carlos University has launched the project "DOGMIND: Animal-assisted interventions for stress management in URJC students". This is a joint initiative of the Animal Assisted Interventions Office and the Healthy University, two of the areas of the URJC University Social Responsibility service.

This project was born with the vocation of transferring some of the most innovative knowledge and practices in terms of stress management to the student body, so that they acquire resources that help them to better face the exams. According to Israel González, head of the Animal Assisted Interventions Office, "this will be the first step for many others who want to help and collaborate with the students of Rey Juan Carlos through different projects."

In this case, two interventions will be carried out by the psychologists from Universidad Saludable, Ainhoa Romero and Silvia Cruz. The objective of these sessions will be “to work on stress management resources from full attention. For this, the presence of dogs that accompany and participate in the development of the session will be included, interacting with the students”.

As Israel González has explained, “this initiative is a response to what various professors have transmitted to us; the students always respond well to the practices in class but, in the theoretical exam, the pressure means that there are not always such good results”.

Thus, with this research project it is intended to assess whether the interventions are effective in reducing anxiety before the exam and, in turn, whether the intervention assisted with animals leads to better results than the intervention without dogs.

The next interventions will take place in the regular exam period in May with certain groups of different grades (Psychology, Labor Relations, Dance...), performing them before entering their respective exams. "At this moment, we have some twenty-something students and we also want to call on the teachers to explain what the program consists of to them first-hand," González explained.

DOGMIND is an innovative and pioneering project in the university field from which five students have already been able to benefit. “Now we will see if there really is a considerable improvement by including these practices among our students”, has concluded the person in charge of the Office of Assisted Interventions.