Foster Care Training

Empathy is a stimulated emotional state that relies on the ability to perceive, understand, and care about the experiences or perspectives of another. Whereas, compassion is an emotional response to empathy or sympathy and creates a desire to connect. Utilizing the current research on this topic in relation to animals allows for an ideal opportunity to use evidence-based practices to cultivate self-knowledge, self-compassion and self-empathy through the relationship with certain animals. Through framing, storytelling, and informed perspective-taking, we have the opportunity to recognize the animals in our personal care or at their local Zoo as individual beings with unique perspectives, needs, and preferences, which can help youth to strengthen their ability to empathize with themselves through understanding wildlife.