Increases in therapist-patient physiological synchrony after dog-patient contact in canine-assisted psychotherapy: an exploratory pilot study
- 1Universitatsklinikum Jena
Abstract
Introduction: Canine-assisted psychotherapy (CAP) introduces a therapy dog into the therapist-patient relationship and may influence interpersonal processes underlying therapeutic change. This exploratory pilot study investigated whether direct patient-dog contact is associated with changes in autonomic arousal and therapist-patient physiological synchrony. Methods: Skin conductance was recorded from 18 patients with depressive disorders and one therapist during 53 routine CAP sessions. A total of 192 episodes of direct patient-dog contact were identified from video recordings. Three-minute periods before and after each contact onsets were compared. Skin conductance level (SCL), skin conductance fluctuations (SCF), and therapist-patient physiological synchrony were assessed using zero-lag correlation and maximum cross-correlation. Sliding-window analyses examined temporal changes in synchrony, while randomly selected pseudo-events served as controls. Results: SCL increased significantly following dog contact in both patients and the therapist, whereas SCF rate over 3 min did not change significantly. Therapist-patient physiological synchrony increased significantly after dog contact, as indicated by both zero-lag correlation and maximum cross-correlation. Sliding-window analyses confirmed these increases and showed a reduction in the temporal lag between the two physiological signals. Importantly, increases in synchrony were significantly greater following genuine dog-contact events than following pseudo-events. Discussion: Direct physical contact between patients and therapy dogs is followed by increased autonomic arousal and enhanced therapist-patient physiological synchrony. These findings suggest that dog-patient contact may function as an interactional event that promotes physiological coordination and interpersonal attunement within the therapeutic dyad.
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BibTeX
@misc{suttkus2026increases,
title = {{Increases in therapist-patient physiological synchrony after dog-patient contact in canine-assisted psychotherapy: an exploratory pilot study}},
author = {S. Suttkus and A. Schumann and Y. Gupta and F. de la Cruz and M. Geisler and K. Rieger and S. Schulz and G. Ganser and K.-J. Bär},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.06.756999},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756999v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Increases in therapist-patient physiological synchrony after dog-patient contact in canine-assisted psychotherapy: an exploratory pilot study
AU - S. Suttkus
AU - A. Schumann
AU - Y. Gupta
AU - F. de la Cruz
AU - M. Geisler
AU - K. Rieger
AU - S. Schulz
AU - G. Ganser
AU - K.-J. Bär
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.06.756999
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756999v1
AB - Introduction: Canine-assisted psychotherapy (CAP) introduces a therapy dog into the therapist-patient relationship and may influence interpersonal processes underlying therapeutic change. This exploratory pilot study investigated whether direct patient-dog contact is associated with changes in autonomic arousal and therapist-patient physiological synchrony. Methods: Skin conductance was recorded from 18 patients with depressive disorders and one therapist during 53 routine CAP sessions. A total of 192 episodes of direct patient-dog contact were identified from video recordings. Three-minute periods before and after each contact onsets were compared. Skin conductance level (SCL), skin conductance fluctuations (SCF), and therapist-patient physiological synchrony were assessed using zero-lag correlation and maximum cross-correlation. Sliding-window analyses examined temporal changes in synchrony, while randomly selected pseudo-events served as controls. Results: SCL increased significantly following dog contact in both patients and the therapist, whereas SCF rate over 3 min did not change significantly. Therapist-patient physiological synchrony increased significantly after dog contact, as indicated by both zero-lag correlation and maximum cross-correlation. Sliding-window analyses confirmed these increases and showed a reduction in the temporal lag between the two physiological signals. Importantly, increases in synchrony were significantly greater following genuine dog-contact events than following pseudo-events. Discussion: Direct physical contact between patients and therapy dogs is followed by increased autonomic arousal and enhanced therapist-patient physiological synchrony. These findings suggest that dog-patient contact may function as an interactional event that promotes physiological coordination and interpersonal attunement within the therapeutic dyad.
ER -