Stephanie Effken

    These days, therapy involves more than a leather couch. It includes the loving face of a furry friend.
     Lisa Ashby of Seward, an English professor at Concordia University, and her black lab therapy dog Sadie spent Feb. 23 through 28 at Northern Illinois University.
     On Feb. 14 a graduate of Northern Illinois University opened fire in a lecture hall killing five students before killing himself.
     Classes had been closed since then and reconvened on Monday, Feb. 24.
     Ashby and her dog are both trained in therapy and crisis response. Through Animal-Assisted Crisis Response (AACR), a national crisis response organization, they were invited down to NIU for the start of classes.
     Ashby said along with herself and her dog there were nine other therapy dogs and their handlers from AACR. There were also 500 counselors distributed among classrooms, hallways and residence halls during the week.
     "We had a very positive response," Ashby said, "The dogs offer comfort and support, and some just like the distraction from a hard experience."
     Ashby and Sadie spent time in the waiting room of the counseling center, at student group meetings, residence halls, dining halls and any campus information meetings.
     The campus wanted to make sure that help was given to every student who needed it.
     With new security measures in place, the news media everywhere and armed police in lecture halls, Ashby said the campus was in somewhat of an uproar.
     "Initially, there was the knowledge that people needed to get back to school, but there was fear as to what that might entail," Ashby said. "They appreciated all the help, but they just needed to get on with their lives."
     For a while, Ashby said, students were unsure of Sadie's purpose on campus. As soon as they figured out she was not a bomb sniffing dog, students were calling their friends with the dog's location. People would show up just to be with Sadie and the other crisis response dogs.
     "Dogs are just a comfortable, calm, steady presence," Ashby said. "They enable a connection and fill a basic human need."
     Ashby and Sadie have done other crisis response at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Greensburg, Kan., after the tornado, at sites of hurricanes Rita and Katrina and for several schools after the death of classmates.
     Ashby described doing crisis intervention as a blessing.
     "It has made me see the gift that life is," she said. "I've seen how fragile life is and it is amazing to see the strength people can call upon from themselves and their community. You get to see the best of people as they pull themselves together."
     Ashby said she cannot even count the number of people that thanked them for being there. One woman from Kenya expressed her gratitude saying, "My heart thanks you."
     "The dogs know they are there to care for people," Ashby said. "It seems like they're saying 'everything is gonna be OK.'"