Fearless Friends and Canine Companions

We like to think that there is always a little bit of magic going on at the Child Mind Institute, but today was something else. It was the last day of our Fearless Friends program for kids with obsessive-compulsive disorder and specific phobias, and Dr. Jerry Bubrick, who runs it, had told me that a therapy dog would be in the office. At about 11 am I got an email from his iPhone. “Come now to Jenna’s desk!!!”

There I met Jezebel, or Jezzie, who was calmly passing the time with two Fearless Friends, a boy and a girl, and eating cucumber slices for some reason. In the course of just a few minutes the girl, who was quite afraid of dogs, pet Jezzie “on her back and on all four legs,” as she put it. I think she got the nose, because she said it was “really wet.” Oh, and the real prize: “I found her tickle spot.”

Throughout all of this Jerry and his colleagues Dr. Jamie Howard and Dr. Rachel Busman gently guided the interaction, which of course was a clever and delightful bit of exposure therapy. But it was the little boy who truly grabbed my attention. (Jamie told me later that his issue with the texture of cucumbers explained that odd detail.) At one point when the young lady was petting Jezzie, he asked, “Did you let her lick you yet?” No was the answer. “I wonder when you will,” he said.

In case the point is lost, these children were in the care of smart, caring adults, but they had also been taught to support each other. And that says a lot about programs like Fearless Friends and Brave Buddies in particular, and about the Child Mind Institute as a whole. I won’t even mention the other therapy dog, Safronelle, that mysteriously appeared, or the visitor who said the atmosphere today was like Google headquarters. I’ll close with what the boy whispered to the girl as I walked away; Jamie told me later. “If she sticks her tongue out, she’s just yawning,” he soothed her. “Don’t worry.”