What actually happens in an animal communication session?
Typically I work from my office, with you (the animal’s person) on the phone. While I’m communicating with your animal, I’ll be silent for a minute or two, and you’ll wait patiently on the phone. Then I describe to you what I just experienced with your animal, ask you how you want to proceed, perhaps brainstorm with you a bit, and then sink in to communicate with your animal again.
When I communicate with an animal (there are many different ways to do so... this is my own personal style), I close my eyes and sink into a “quiet mind” state of awareness. This quiet mind state is similar to how you might feel when you meditate or do tai chi or even calmly wash a sink full of dishes, or how you feel when you go for a long run or a long drive and find your mind just sinks into a “zone” of quiet receptivity.
In this quite state, I first “meet”” your animal. To do this, I picture the animal, and say his or her name a few times, as if to say, “Hello? Zoe? Is this you?” Now, what happens next can be difficult to explain... it is almost as Zoe appears IN my mind, in a sort of virtual reality experience. Except Zoe picks the scenery (we might be on a mountain, in a living room, in absolute darkness). Zoe picks how big we both are (she might be towering above me, or cowering at my feet, or a teeny speck in the distance). I pay very close attention--every detail of the interaction is important, as Zoe chooses how to introduce herself to me. More and more I find that 90% of the information I need to know about the animal comes through in the first few seconds of a session--if I’m alert and savvy enough to understand and remember it! I’ve tried to share some examples below.
AAHHHHH! A PERSON!
Another example: every now and then I’ll settle in to communicate with a new dog, only to find the dog towering over me, growling menacingly, drooling, looking like he wants to rip my head off. When this happens I always sense in very carefully to the animal’s emotions. I’ve found that very rarely it is a genuinely dominant, suspicious, and wild-spirited dog who acts this way. And that most of the time an animal who introduces himself this way is actually quite insecure and totally bluffing (similar to a person who needs to tell you, in the first minute of conversation, just how rich/important/influential/well connected he is--usually a clear symptom of low self-esteem). The distinction is vitally important because, if, say, the owner called me to help resolve that dog’s aggression towards other dogs, we would handle the same issue VERY differently with a highly dominant dog vs. an insecure dog.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...
So, after I “meet” the animal in this way, I describe the interaction to you, and share my interpretation of the animal’s personality. It should always make sense to you, and give you confidence that this is indeed “your” Zoe I am communicating with. Then, depending on the reason for the session, you will have a chance to ask specific questions of the animal. If, for example, you are going on a long vacation and want to know if your dog would be most comfortable staying at home with daily visits from the neighbor, or going to a boarding facility to be with lots of other dogs, I would show your dog images of the two difference scenarios, and watch his reaction closely, and then tell you what I see. If you call because your cat is urinating on your couch (and you’ve been to the vet to rule out a urinary tract infection), I’d show her a picture of herself peeing on the couch, and ask “why?” In answer, she might show me a movie of something going on in the household that offends or distress her, or she might show me that the new batch of cat litter you got her smells strange, etc. I NEVER know what the animals will show me. I just try to pay close attention to every detail of their response, so I don’t miss or misinterpret or misunderstand their answer.
If there is a difficulty or problem in your relationship with your animal, it can sometimes be a simple matter of miscommunication between you and the animal. Maybe you think Huckleberry is a wonderful name for a cat, and your cat finds it demeaning and disrespectful. Maybe you are frustrated to tears by your dog’s aggressive attitude toward strangers, and he simply thought he was doing his job by protecting you. In these cases, it can be fairly simple to clarify both of your intentions and resolve the issue.
Sometimes, of course, there are deeper issues involved and the best we can work toward is a compromise. Say you are frustrated by your parrot’s demanding shrieks and antisocial behavior. It turns out that she is frustrated and anxious and lonely in a cage all day while you go to work. She needs more of your attention and companionship, but you have a demanding work schedule and travel frequently. In this case, my simply explaining to her that you don’t want her to shriek and bite you isn’t going to resolve anything. We would have to work toward some kind of compromise... would a bird companion to socialize with during the day help her? What about a bigger and more interesting enclosure? Is there an elderly person next door who could come visit her during the day? Or does she simply need and want a new home where she would get more consistent attention? Many consultations turn out to be of this, more complicated and nuanced, variety.
“This is it, I thought. This is the part that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.” ~Martha Beck, Expecting Adam