Pre-Recorded Downloadable Webinar.

Explore how attachment theory can transform your Animal-Assisted Intervention practice for children and young people who have experienced disrupted or challenging early relationships. You'll learn why animals can succeed where human relationships have struggled, how to build trust and felt safety at a child's own pace, and how to turn an animal-led connection into a lasting, trusted human relationship.

Duration: 37 minutes
Format: Downloadable pre-recorded webinar with reflective prompts and practice examples
Audience: Professionals working in education, care, and therapeutic settings supporting children and young people with insecure or disrupted attachment

What You'll Learn

• How attachment theory (Bowlby, Ainsworth) explains trust, safety, and connection in childhood development
• Why animals can reduce relational demand and offer a safer, lower-risk route to connection than human relationships
• Practical ways to support emotional co-regulation, predictability, and "felt safety" in AAI sessions
• How to build trust gradually, without pushing a child faster than they're ready for
• How to protect animal welfare while keeping sessions consistent and predictable
• Planning sensitive transitions and endings so a child never feels abandoned or let down
• How trust built with an animal can transfer into genuine, lasting human relationships

Hosted by:
David Boxall – Training Manager at Elysian, specialising in creating and delivering training programmes on animal-assisted interventions. David draws on his background in education and years of hands-on experience supporting people with complex additional needs to explore how AAI can be used safely, ethically, and effectively within an attachment-informed framework.