Beard Dragons as therapy animals in America

Therapist, Andrea Ribeiro, is trying to elicit. She specializes in treating people with disabilities, autism or anxiety, using an unusual method: reptile therapy, which she says helps patients relax and improve their communication, motor skills and other abilities.

Ribeiro has pioneered this method over the past decade at the treatment centre, which features an open-air space where patients interact with lizards, turtles and a “jacare”.

But “it’s been medically demonstrated that when people come in contact with animals, it releases neurotransmitters such as serotonin and beta-endorphins that give a sense of pleasure and well-being,” says Ribeiro. “That makes (patients) feel good and want to learn.”

The reptiles “enable us to achieve better, faster results,” she told Agence France-Presse.

Ribeiro used to use dogs in her treatment sessions, but she found their constant attempts to play and interact made some patients uneasy, especially those with autism. So she turned to reptiles.

It’s a class of animals that makes many people squirm. But people with autism tend to approach them “without prejudice,” she says: The animals spark their curiosity without making them uncomfortable. The reptiles, for their part, “are indifferent,” she says. “They don’t seek attention the way some mammals do.”

Ten-year-old Gabriel Pinheiro is petting a beard dragon, trying to imitate Ribeiro’s syllables by opening his mouth wide three times: “Ja-ca-re.”

“It’s wet,” he says, his eyes fixated on the creature from behind his glasses. The alligator’s scales are “hard,” its belly “soft,” he says, as the therapist helps him work on opposites.