
Cynthia Kay ChandlerUniversity of North Texas | UNT · Department of Counseling and Higher Education
Cynthia Kay Chandler
Ed.D.
About
45
Publications
18,486
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Introduction
Cynthia Kay Chandler works at the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, University of North Texas where she started in 1989. Cynthia does research in Counseling and Animal Assisted therapy. Her most recent publication is "Human-Animal Relational Theory: A Guide to Animal-Assisted Counseling." She authored the landmark book, Animal-Assisted Therapy in Counseling, 3rd edition, 2017.
Additional affiliations
August 1989 - present
Publications
Publications (45)
This study investigated if and how HART constructs manifested in animal-assisted therapy in counseling (AAT-C). Using a constructivist, grounded-theory approach the following HART constructs were examined: relational moments, significant human-animal relational moments, human-animal relational processing, and human-animal relational therapeutic imp...
Animal assisted counseling (AAC) has become a more common practice and yet little attention has been paid to cultural diversity considerations with this modality. The purpose of this article is to increase clinicians' awareness of the cultural differences related to animals within different cultural groups in order to promote culturally sensitive p...
Animal-assisted therapy in counseling (AAT-C) is growing in popularity. However, there has been no theory to guide the practice and supervision of this field. In response to this need, I developed human-animal relational theory (HART). HART is a model that explains how AAT-C is effective and serves as a guide for practice and supervision. I describ...
A unique and expansive exploration of animal-assisted interventions via interviews with a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary group of professionals from five different countries: U.S., U.K. Israel, India, and Hong Kong.
The most comprehensive book available dedicated to training mental and emotional health practitioners in animal-assisted therapy. A variety of animal-assisted interventions are described with case examples provided in a variety of settings with different types of animals.
The purpose of the study was to explore the impact of pet ownership in order to identify domains of pet-owner wellness and to inform counselors of the value of exploring the owner-pet relationship with clients. A qualitative study was conducted using open-ended, semi-structured interviews. A consensual qualitative research approach was taken to ana...
Recent evidence from the areas of both verbal and visual mediation suggests that qualitative differences exist among mediators. Subjects in this study were asked to generate and describe visual images of common or bizarre interactions for noun pairs that were then judged on the type and number of operations used to form the visual images. Bizarre i...
Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling is the most comprehensive book available dedicated to training mental health practitioners in Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT). It explains the history and practice of AAT in counseling, discusses the latest empirical research, and provides an in-depth explanation of the psychodynamics of AAT within various theore...
Thesis (M.A.)--Texas Tech University, 1981. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-27).
This study implemented an exploratory analysis to examine how a sample of mental health professionals incorporates specific animal-assisted techniques into the therapeutic process. An extensive review of literature related to animal-assisted therapy (AAT) resulted in the identification of 18 techniques and 10 intentions for the practice of AAT in m...
This chapter discusses the multitude of therapeutic options on how animals can be incorporated effectively. It provides an overview of the applications of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) in various disciplines and highlights numerous ways in which AAI can be integrated and applied. It builds on this information and provides useful techniques an...
Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) interventions are often used in mental health practice, yet there are few studies to assist mental health counselors in integrating AAT practice with theoretical foundations. The authors draw upon the literature on AAT intentions and techniques to illustrate how these practices are consistent with a variety of theoreti...
Due to the prevalence of music performance anxiety and the emergence of new biofeedback technologies used to decrease anxiety, student musicians were recruited to participate in an experimental repeated-measures study to identify effects of heart rate variability coherence biofeedback training and emotional self-regulation techniques on music perfo...
This study demonstrates the efficacy of Equine Assisted Counseling (EAC) by comparing EAC to classroom-based counseling. Stu-dents (n = 164) identified as being at high risk for academic and/or social failure participated in 12 weekly counseling sessions. Within-group paired sample t-test results comparing pre-and post-treatment scores for external...
The purpose of this study was to explore whether biofeedback-assisted relaxation training could reduce stress-related symptoms and enhance personal well-being in a group of counselor trainees enrolled in a basic counseling skills course. Treatment participants received ten sessions of weekly biofeedback-assisted relaxation training, whereas the con...
This research addresses the efficacy of Rational Recovery (RR) as a treatment modality. Two groups often (10) alcohol/drug dependent subjects were exposed to two different treatment approaches at an outpatient-counseling center in the Southwest United States. All subjects were given the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-2 (SASSI-2) as a me...
Heterosexist bias exists within the realm of psychological assessment. The authors explore heterosexist bias in 7 widely used assessment instruments and offer suggestions for improvement.
We express appreciation for Prince's and Wohlgemuth's affirmations of and expansions on the article, Bias in Psychological Assessment: Heterosexism. In this article, we respond to critiques and reaffirm areas of unanimous agreement regarding the topic.
Provides a clearer conceptual definition of spiritual wellness based in psychological theory and discusses the interactional relationship between spiritual health and the other dimensions of wellness. Spontaneous events and intentional activities are described that can contribute to enhanced awareness and spiritual growth. Counseling for spiritual...
This paper addresses some theoretical implications regarding the concept of spirituality and offers some practical suggestions for including spiritual health in the health education program. A traditionally accepted model of health (Hettler, 1979), the six dimensions of wellness are the intellectual, emotional, physical, social, occupational, and s...
Variations in attention during intentional or incidental learning were investigated. Materials for intentional learning were presented to 165 college students in conjunction with peripheral cues of humorous and non-humorous materials presented for incidental learning. An hypothesized funneling effect, an attentional shift during learning to the inc...
Studied the relationship between humor, social interest (SI), and dogmatism (DGM), using 136 female and 29 male undergraduates. Ss were grouped for high and low social interest and dogmatism by means of an SI index and the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, respectively. Ss were asked to rate the amount of happiness they were experiencing in their lives and...
Determined whether the complexity level and type of common and bizarre visual mediators generated for paired associate items were functionally related to performance on a recall task given 1 wk later. Results obtained from 84 undergraduates indicate that while bizarre imagery yielded higher complexity scores and was associated with greater response...
Cognitive style defined as Category Width performance was investigated in a group of untreated hypertensives. A preference for larger Category Width judgments was found to co-vary positively with increasing elevations of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Interpretation of Cateogry Width performance as a measure of cognitive style suggests that...
The relationship between blood pressure (BP) and an 18 day protein free diet (PFD) was studied in unanesthetized male Wistar rats beginning at 20 weeks of age. Following cessation of the 18 day diet, BP was monitored for 8 weeks. Both the PFD animals and a control diet (CD) group showed a reduction in BP from 20 weeks to 30 weeks. Reduction in BP f...