Argentina Dog Therapy for Children
Donation protected
Hi my name is Elizabeth DeAngelis and I am currently a graduate student in school psychology fundraising to work at a community project in Cordoba, Argentina to provide children with intellectual, emotional, and learning disabilities dog therapy.
The last two years at Union I have studied religion and psychology, and next year I am continuing in graduate school to become a school psychologist. Therefore, in my summer between graduate programs I decided to join a community project in Cordoba, Argentina where I will work with children who live with learning, mental, and intellectual disabilities by providing them dog therapy. I am fundraising to help me get to Argentina to work on this community project. I will be working monday-Friday 9-5 everyday in groups of children to engage and learn a space where touch in safe through the comfort of animals. I will be doing this community project with Project Abroad (link provided below.) Any donation no matter how small will be helpful and help me pay for my flight, food, and pay the family I am living with, and donate to the organization that provides programs for children in Argentina. As a graduate student, it is hard to save money since all extra work money goes to school supplies, rent, and food. If 60 people donate $58 dollars I will achieve my goal. For all of those who know me knows my personal love for dogs, and for many of you I have even become your family dog walker and also know my personal goals/reasons for wanting to become a school psychologist. I feel this community project is a good fit for me and the community Cordoba for many reasons.
At Union, I focused on psychology and religion because I felt in order for me to achieve my goals of social justice I needed to engage with practical work. As a religion and psychology concentration, I had to complete clinical hours in a chaplaincy internship. I completed 400 clinical hours as chaplain at the New Jewish Home on the Upper West Side. At the nursing home, I would engage in discussions with long term residents, rehabilitation residents, and hospice care patients. In the role of a chaplain I learned to provide empathic pastoral care to individuals in crisis, with detailed reporting of pastoral practice, in a specific time period, and through individual learning contract. My clinical experience taught me many different factors would affect each patient, including the patient’s family dynamics, racial background, mental and physical health, religious background, societal power structures, and my own subjectivity. As a future school psychologist I will always use what I learned in the nursing home. Much like the patients in the nursing home, students engage with multiple pressures that will affect the conversations I will have with them. In Cordoba, I will bring these skills with me and further develop them and return to America with stronger skills to provide care to the children I will work in the New York City Public School System.
My experience as a chaplain in a nursing home particularly helped me understand the effects of transference-countertransference that occurs between a patient and client. I learned that the more self-aware I become about my own life experiences, the better I will be able to present myself and react in a clinical setting. The internship I completed this summer made me realize that my ability to embrace intense situations and become stronger through my interpersonal conflicts is my way to grow and engage communities.
After my internship I reflected deeply on how I would like to give back to communities through practical work. This is what lead to the field of school psychology, particularly childhood abuse prevention. As a religion and psychology student, I am required to write a master’s thesis. My thesis was on childhood sexual abuse. My thesis was on how childhood sexual abuse manifests in the adult survivor, and how spiritual communities take part healing. I observe psychology trauma literature on how childhood sexual abuse can result in the dissociation from one`s bodily experience of feeling alive. The thesis then examines a theological discussion of how the evil act of childhood sexual abuse not only distorts the body, it also distorts one sense of spirit. In Argentina I will be working with children who come from low-income homes and family dysfunction; therefore, my experience will help me further on how to use my academic work on childhood sexual abuse to look for signs in children who can possibly be experiencing abusive situations and provide education on prevention of abuse in different communities. Children carry massive amounts on their shoulders from the sociological situations in which they live. In Argentina I hope to provide support to a community of children to have a safe space to feel alive through the experience of dog therapy. For many children touch has become a form of terror, therapy dogs can provide a safe space where children can learn to feel alive again through safe touch of animals.
While in Argentina I will also be working on my skills to speak Spanish. I can read Spanish stronger than I can speak the language. I am hoping to become fluent in Spanish because when I work in the New York City school system many children have parents whose first language is not English and the second most common language is Spanish. Many of us forget our own privilege of speaking the majority language of where we live. One could imagine the difficulties children face when teachers and school psychologist cannot communicate fully with their parents. I hope my community project trip to Argentina will benefit the children of Argentina and help me gain language experience to benefit my future students I will work with throughout my career. Children are up against racial, economic, gender, and many more power injustices within the American school system, school psychology is a field that helps give children agency and proper accommodations/emotional support so children from a non-privileged place can have equal opportunities.
Your donation of any kind will be so helpful for me to fulfill this project. If 60 people donated $58.00 I will achieve my goal and will be able to provide children in Argentina dog therapy, any donation no matter how small is a huge help. I appreciate you for time to read this message and hope you have a wonderful summer.
http://www.projects-abroad.org/?gclid=CMGC_qPK8NMCFYlKDQodOI8L6Q
The last two years at Union I have studied religion and psychology, and next year I am continuing in graduate school to become a school psychologist. Therefore, in my summer between graduate programs I decided to join a community project in Cordoba, Argentina where I will work with children who live with learning, mental, and intellectual disabilities by providing them dog therapy. I am fundraising to help me get to Argentina to work on this community project. I will be working monday-Friday 9-5 everyday in groups of children to engage and learn a space where touch in safe through the comfort of animals. I will be doing this community project with Project Abroad (link provided below.) Any donation no matter how small will be helpful and help me pay for my flight, food, and pay the family I am living with, and donate to the organization that provides programs for children in Argentina. As a graduate student, it is hard to save money since all extra work money goes to school supplies, rent, and food. If 60 people donate $58 dollars I will achieve my goal. For all of those who know me knows my personal love for dogs, and for many of you I have even become your family dog walker and also know my personal goals/reasons for wanting to become a school psychologist. I feel this community project is a good fit for me and the community Cordoba for many reasons.
At Union, I focused on psychology and religion because I felt in order for me to achieve my goals of social justice I needed to engage with practical work. As a religion and psychology concentration, I had to complete clinical hours in a chaplaincy internship. I completed 400 clinical hours as chaplain at the New Jewish Home on the Upper West Side. At the nursing home, I would engage in discussions with long term residents, rehabilitation residents, and hospice care patients. In the role of a chaplain I learned to provide empathic pastoral care to individuals in crisis, with detailed reporting of pastoral practice, in a specific time period, and through individual learning contract. My clinical experience taught me many different factors would affect each patient, including the patient’s family dynamics, racial background, mental and physical health, religious background, societal power structures, and my own subjectivity. As a future school psychologist I will always use what I learned in the nursing home. Much like the patients in the nursing home, students engage with multiple pressures that will affect the conversations I will have with them. In Cordoba, I will bring these skills with me and further develop them and return to America with stronger skills to provide care to the children I will work in the New York City Public School System.
My experience as a chaplain in a nursing home particularly helped me understand the effects of transference-countertransference that occurs between a patient and client. I learned that the more self-aware I become about my own life experiences, the better I will be able to present myself and react in a clinical setting. The internship I completed this summer made me realize that my ability to embrace intense situations and become stronger through my interpersonal conflicts is my way to grow and engage communities.
After my internship I reflected deeply on how I would like to give back to communities through practical work. This is what lead to the field of school psychology, particularly childhood abuse prevention. As a religion and psychology student, I am required to write a master’s thesis. My thesis was on childhood sexual abuse. My thesis was on how childhood sexual abuse manifests in the adult survivor, and how spiritual communities take part healing. I observe psychology trauma literature on how childhood sexual abuse can result in the dissociation from one`s bodily experience of feeling alive. The thesis then examines a theological discussion of how the evil act of childhood sexual abuse not only distorts the body, it also distorts one sense of spirit. In Argentina I will be working with children who come from low-income homes and family dysfunction; therefore, my experience will help me further on how to use my academic work on childhood sexual abuse to look for signs in children who can possibly be experiencing abusive situations and provide education on prevention of abuse in different communities. Children carry massive amounts on their shoulders from the sociological situations in which they live. In Argentina I hope to provide support to a community of children to have a safe space to feel alive through the experience of dog therapy. For many children touch has become a form of terror, therapy dogs can provide a safe space where children can learn to feel alive again through safe touch of animals.
While in Argentina I will also be working on my skills to speak Spanish. I can read Spanish stronger than I can speak the language. I am hoping to become fluent in Spanish because when I work in the New York City school system many children have parents whose first language is not English and the second most common language is Spanish. Many of us forget our own privilege of speaking the majority language of where we live. One could imagine the difficulties children face when teachers and school psychologist cannot communicate fully with their parents. I hope my community project trip to Argentina will benefit the children of Argentina and help me gain language experience to benefit my future students I will work with throughout my career. Children are up against racial, economic, gender, and many more power injustices within the American school system, school psychology is a field that helps give children agency and proper accommodations/emotional support so children from a non-privileged place can have equal opportunities.
Your donation of any kind will be so helpful for me to fulfill this project. If 60 people donated $58.00 I will achieve my goal and will be able to provide children in Argentina dog therapy, any donation no matter how small is a huge help. I appreciate you for time to read this message and hope you have a wonderful summer.
http://www.projects-abroad.org/?gclid=CMGC_qPK8NMCFYlKDQodOI8L6Q
Organizer
Elizabeth Leigh
Organizer
New York, NY