Kelowna Psychologist talks dogs and mental health

The British Columbia Psychological Association is sponsoring a series of free public presentations throughout February on a range of topics from coping with depression and stress to maintaining love and happiness.

Amongst the speakers is Dr. Kim Dawson, a psychologist registered in British Columbia and currently practicing in Kelowna, who will be presenting two talks in Kelowna on “Overcoming Trauma” and the “Psychological Benefits of Spending Time with Dogs.”

Speaking at his home in Kelowna, Dawson explained that the free talks hosted by the BCPA are part of an overall goal to raise awareness about mental health and the role psychology can play in addressing the issues that come with it.

“The effort here is to raise public awareness about mental health and the importance of psychology to people’s lives,” said Dawson. “Mental health awareness is an important thing and psychologists have a critical service to provide with training and expertise in the area,”

Elaborating on the subject of his talks, Dawson spoke about some of the methods used by psychologists to treat people suffering from mental illness.

“Part of the treatment array for trauma is to become more mindful of one's thoughts and feelings when a trauma has occurred and there’s a long-term reaction to that trauma,” began Dawson. “A lot of emotions can be mainly focused around anxiety reactions, moods tend to drop and people can get hyper vigilant. And so what a lot of people tend to do is try to avoid those feelings.”

Dawson continued to explain that a big part of treatment involves helping patients focus on those feelings.

“There’s a well-known treatment called exposure therapy,” said Dawson. “And more recently there’s treatments like mindfulness, that’s drawn on ancient practices of meditation that very recently has been shown to impact the brain in areas that we would want to promote healing from trauma.”

“Another piece is kind of mindfulness or awareness building about the importance of spending time in nature. People who have trauma tend to feel better if they get out and move around at least a little bit every day... and dogs are of course a segway to that. Pretty much all dogs love to walk, they look at you to take them out, and so they are a stimulus to get you out and get you exercising.”

Dawson also took the time to talk about a charity that he founded with his wife to bring young people and dogs together to tackle mental health issues and promote compassion and empathy.

“My wife has been a keener about walking for a long time and we started rather early in our marriage helping rescue dogs, bringing shelter dogs into our home and doing some fostering and adopting several of those dogs along the way,” said Dawson. “And I've worked with youth for several years as well so... we just combined those interests and decided we would help both groups by bringing them together.”

“The program teaches young people who may be struggling in their own life with anxiety, depression and even trauma... to work with dogs, coach them in basic obedience and just relate with dogs,” said Dawson. “Kids are emotion-focused and needing safety and dogs can provide that safety.”

Those who are interested in finding out more about the charity are encouraged to visit their website.

Dawson’s talks will be presented on February 6 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and February 27th from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Okanagan Regional Library (Kelowna Branch).

To find out more about the British Columbia Psychological Association and their speaker series, go online.