**1. Introduction**

Developing technology, rehabilitation services, and change in health definitions have brought about the use of different treatment methods as well as traditional treatments. Some of these methods are virtual reality, animal-assisted practices, and aqua therapy. Animalassisted approaches are defined as using human and animal interaction in therapeutic methods to eliminate or decrease the problems that an individual experiences in the physical,

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

psychological, and social environments. These methods consist of two basic topics, namely animal-assisted activities (AAA) and animal-assisted therapies (AAT). Both AAA and AAT can be implemented in an interdisciplinary team approach. Occupational therapists (OTs), physiotherapists, speech therapists, special education specialists, and psychologists are core elements of these approaches. In recent years, these methods have also been used to increase social interaction with physical structure and functions in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and cerebral palsy in addition to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety to increase the independence in daily life activities and social participation.

are circulated by an invisible soul, spirit, or "essence," but with conscious bodybuilding, the carrier can act independently of the body when it dreams or is unconscious. In a typical animist worldview, all statements of illness or misfortune are the direct result of attacks by the other angry or evil spirits encountered during these periods of unconsciousness toward the spirit of the person or the "truth." In some cases, these spiritual attacks are thought to be reprisals. It is the result of moral accusation that the person intentionally or mistakenly does. On the other hand, a person can be the innocent victim of a malicious shaman or the attack of souls acting in the name of witches. Tips about the root of spiritual attacks are provided by the contents of dreams or images just before certain illnesses, injuries, or misfortunes [7–9]. Animist belief systems carry the characteristics of all communities that engage in hunting, and disturbing animal spirits among these communities are often seen as the most common source of malicious mental influences. Many hunters believe that the souls of hunted animals in the tribe have the ability to seek revenge as the ghosts of killed people. To avoid this accretion, all animals, whether dead or alive, are treated with great respect [10]. In other hunting and feeding cultures, there were more specific moral associations between people and the animals they hunted for food. For example, many Native American and Eurasian peoples believe in the concept of personal "protective spirits" [7, 11]. Between Ojibwa (Chippewa) and the Algonian neighbors, these spirits were known as *manito* and were often represented as spiritual representations of wild animals or figures of their ancestors. Live animals were regarded as "honorable servants" of their own *manitos*, and this kind of spirit apparently presided over and represented all the worldly members of their species. For this reason, the hunters made contradictory ceremonies after killing an animal, so that the "essence" would return to *manito* with a convenient explanation of how it was processed. According to Ojibwa worldview, *manito's* activities explained almost all conditions of everyday life. Every living thing, whether alive or dead, was equipped with spiritual powers and associated with any unfortunate *manito*, such as illness, injury, death, or hunting that resulted in failure or the lack of personalized intention of someone else [12]. It was believed that the protective spirits of the animals differed in power. The majority of insects and small animals, such as mice, rats, or squirrels, were referred to as not important species because there was the belief that these animals lacked the protective qualities. On the other hand, it was believed that animals such as the bear and eagle had good protective spirits and so they were considered valuable [7, 12].

Animal-Assisted Therapy in Occupational Therapy http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76468 93

The end of the seventeenth century which was called "Age of Enlightenment" brought some changes in the public perception of animals that are well documented by historians of the modern age [13, 14]. Among these changes, contrary to the pre-medieval and renaissance periods, sympathetic thoughts began to dominate attitudes toward animals and nature [15]. While perceptions of wildlife and threats to wildlife have diminished from prevalence, petfeeding habits have expanded to aristocratic and middle-class communities living in newly founded cities. This change in animal-related attitudes and behaviors could at least partly reflect Europeans' migration from rural areas to the towns and cities, and the rapid spread of the human population. This rural migration made it possible for the population to be adapted to systems designed for growth [8, 14]. The reformers of the eighteenth century, deriving their authority from the works of John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes, thought that they could

**3.2. Animals as socialization agents**
