Dogs and applied neuroscience: two of my favorite things. When they’re combined under the topic of “Neurowellness,” it’s puppy breath bliss! And it’s a global phenomenon!

Close to home – about 6 blocks from our downtown Charleston, SC house – the historic Francis Marion Hotel recently hosted the MIND 2025 Conference. MIND stands for the MUSC Institute for Neuroscience Discovery. (MUSC is the Medical University of South Carolina.)

The conference’s neurowellness track featured Cathy Bennett speaking on the powers of animal-assisted therapy. Cathy, who spent most of her career in HR, has been leading MUSC’s dog therapy program since 2018.

Marcel the Therapy Dog and seven of his co-workers, all accompanied by their Uber drivers (as Cathy refers to us human handlers), joined her on stage for introductions. We then fanned out to meet and greet participants who could then pet the dogs.

More than 4,800 miles away in Rome, Italy, another former HR leader, Letizia Carbonetti, is celebrating the publication of her book Manimal. Il cane e il cavallo per allenare le competenze socio-emotive. Translated it’s “Manimal. The dog and the horse to train socio-emotional competencies,” available only in Italian now. Letizia also has an article in the April 2025 issue of Harvard Business Review (Italian), La Forza Della Partnership: Con Manimal I Co-Facilatori Hanno Quattro Zampe. Translated it’s “The Strength Of Partnership: With Manimal, Co-Facilitators Have Four Legs.”

In their work with animals, both Cathy and Letizia are helping humans improve their lives. Cathy’s focus is therapy dogs; Letizia’s focus is dogs and horses. And to paraphrase MUSC’s mission, both Cathy and Letizia are working to change what’s possible in terms of innovation, impact, and influence to push boundaries and create positive change.

As the founder of the Manimal Academy, Letizia has developed an experience-based approach to help humans connect better with themselves, with others, and their situation. To say it another way, individuals who participate in Manimal are improving their social skills as they interact with animals.

Letizia’s Manimal method is based on a simple, yet unconventional premise. She describes it as: “To guide others we must first learn to relate consciously.”  Manimal’s dogs and horses serve as her co-facilitators. Together they help the humans understand that the quality of their presence affects the quality of their leadership, much more so than their roles in the organization or their words.

This premise is well suited for today’s times. We humans are striving to be more present for ourselves and others while we also are craving more authenticity and  trusting relationships.

The animals don’t judge or interpret what they see and hear from the humans; instead, the animals provide instant feedback about how the human is showing up. For example, when the animals see inconsistencies between what the humans say and do, the animals respond to this lack of coherence. They may refuse to move, turn away, or change their gaze. As soon as the animals experience a change in the human’s posture, breathing, tone of voice or whatever, the animals will respond.

Two established frameworks underpin Manimal and its experiential learning:

1. The Six Seconds model of emotional intelligence. It teaches individuals to a) “know yourself” through increased self-awareness; b) “choose yourself” to be intentional about what you mean to do; and c) “give yourself” to act with purpose.
2. The International Coaching Federation In particular, Manimal emphasizes deep listening, presence, trust, and autonomy.

When interacting with the animals, the humans receive immediate non-verbal feedback that they physically feel as well as observe. These exchanges help the humans develop and improve their deep listening skills  and emotional regulation. And by being in sync with the animals, the humans start to experience more congruence between their intentions and actions, which in turn helps them enhance their leadership presence and their ability to create psychological safety for their teams.

Back in Charleston, Letizia’s Manimal work and benefits resonate with me. Marcel and I have been participating in the MUSC dog therapy program since December 2017 and I am much more attune to him as well as myself.

And we’re also benefiting with others in the dramatic expansion of the MUSC program in terms of teams and types of services. When we started, 32 teams of dogs and human handlers visited patients, their families, and health care workers in three hospitals. Now more than 100 teams serve multiple hospitals and facilities. Plus, we’re also doing animal-assisted therapy work, supporting community outreach programs, and participating in ground-breaking research studies.

For example, Marcel has served as the dog therapist working with the human therapist at the MUSC outpatient eating disorder clinic. Marcel’s role involves doing demonstrations for patients on how to  regulate your anxiety. Plus he helps his patients co-regulate their nervous systems.

Before taking on these responsibilities, Marcel made weekly rounds to our neighborhood  Charleston Police Department substation. There he helped police officers destress.

Later in June, Marcel will join 25 of his fellow canine therapists in the first “canine consent” research project. Its purpose is to evaluate the extent to which therapy dogs experience fear, anxiety, and stress during visits with hospital inpatients. The aim is to create best practice guidelines for therapy handlers to recognize, address stress, and be better advocates for their working animals.

Cathy has managed two other pioneering research studies. One showcased the benefits of integrating canine therapy with occupational therapy. By throwing balls to dogs during their sessions, patients regained mobility and strength and enjoyed the experience.

The other study has analyzed the degree to which pediatric dental patients reduce their levels of stress and anxiety by having a therapy dog by their side or on their lap in the outpatient operating room. The study also examined the extent to which the dogs increased the microbiomes in the room.

The dogs are a win/win. For those wanting therapy dogs with them,  the dogs benefit the pediatric patients and their parents. Even better, the dogs don’t add to the microbiomes.

Here’s to working dogs and horses contributing to increased neurowellness! And thank you Cathy and Letizia for paving the way and showing us what’s possible!