Healing Companions
Ordinary Dogs Transforming Lives
ABOUT JANE MILLER
Learn about Jane and her dedication to promoting animals as healers.
TRAINING PSYCHIATRIC SERVICE DOGS
Read and understand the criteria used to assess a dog's ability to perform as a PSD.
DO I QUALIFY FOR A PSD
Are you in the Oberlin, Ohio area? Read the criteria for someone to receive a Psychiatric Service Dog.
YOU CAN HELP
Training Psychiatric Service Dogs is an expensive endeavor. Learn how you can help !
THE IMPACT OF JANE'S WORK WITH PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM MENTAL ILLNESS WAS ASTOUNDING
Imagine being so paralyzed by doubt, social anxiety, or memories of past traumas that you couldn’t hold down a job. A simple errand like going to the grocery store or the bank is a terrifying prospect. Relationships with family and loved ones are strained by your illness. You wish you could just turn it off, but you just can’t make the pain and fear go away.
For millions of people, this is the reality they live with every day. Mental illness can have a crippling effect on a person’s ability to live a happy, functional life.
Around 20 years ago, licensed psychotherapist and Healing Companions, Inc., founder Jane Miller began training psychiatric service dogs to help her clients struggling with severe mental illnesses that left them unable to function in society. Today she continues to provide therapy services and to advocate for using animals in therapy.
OUR PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES
Our original mission was to match those with need to shelter dogs that could be trained to become psychiatric service dogs. Many of our dogs were once unwanted puppies from various shelters. We rescued them and trained them to aid our clients as psychiatric service dogs. In this way, our dogs got a second chance at life just like our clients. Though we no longer train psychiatric service dogs, we continue to advocate for the use of dogs to assist those with mental illness or trauma. We offer many types of assistance, from dogs in the workplace to presentations on helpful modalities.
Jane’s primary focus today is her therapy work.
