Increases in therapist–patient physiological synchrony after dog–patient contact in canine-assisted psychotherapy: an exploratory pilot study
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
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.
Language: English
Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221824469