Healing Companions, Inc.

Healing Companions Inc. serves mentally ill residents of Northeast Ohio, providing them with information about, and access to an emerging healing practice with the potential of transforming their lives and the lives of those around them. The essence of our work revolves around the training of Psychiatric Service Dogs. As a small organization Healing Companions is capable of truly tailoring the training of Psychiatric Service Dogs (PSDs) to meet the needs of the client. As opposed to training dogs on general service tasks, we train PSDs to meet the needs of the client so as to mitigate the effects of the symptoms of the client's specific mental condition. We are committed to high ethical standards of training and understand the value of intensive one-on-one, individualized training, which can be extremely time-consuming. The organization trains only a limited number of PSDs simultaneously so as to guarantee the quality of their training. It takes 18-24 months to fully train each PSD. . A win-win situation transforming the lives of so many. PSDs are task trained to guide a client disoriented by anxiety; conduct a room search to alleviate fear of intruders or the unknown; provide assistance in locating an individual's car when dissociating; interrupt a panic attack, obsessive compulsive behavior and/or nightmares; among a variety of other tasks. The tasks that the PSD is trained to perform allow individuals to go out into the world, hold jobs, study, develop healthy relationships, and cope with the ups and downs of daily life. The value of having a healing companion, however, goes beyond having the dog perform specific tasks. The client's participation in the training of the dog is an empowering experience in itself: one based on deep emotional bonds and a respectful professional relationship. The client gains confidence, life-skills and commits to the care of another living creature. In this life-changing process, individuals who are unable to take proper care of themselves become aware that they are capable of caring for another living being, resulting in renewed self-worth. Miller's work and passion as a psychotherapist is to eradicate the stigma in our society surrounding mental illness. We need to share stories that expose that those with mental illness live productive, independent lives filled with integrity, joy, struggles and courage. Miller's passion is to change the perceptions and take the “I” out of mental Illness and change it to â WE'in mental Wellness. We place shelter dogs with those with mental illness as psychiatric service dogs giving both the dog and human productive, independent lives.