Katy Kleinschmidt says Coping Together’s animal assisted therapy not only helped her son Jack form deep relationships with his favorite animals, but improved his ability to connect with people as well.
Jack, who has autism and struggles to communicate, started working with Shelley Skas, founder and president of the animal-assisted therapy nonprofit, about three years ago after struggling to recover from the isolation brought by COVID-19 lockdowns, Kleinschmidt said.
“I was pretty desperate,” Kleinschmidt said. “His behavior just got more, I don’t want to say aggressive, but just more regular.”
At first, Jack was working individually with Skas. But one day, Kleinschmidt said, Skas asked the two of them to tour her ranch on Steger Road in Frankfort.
“She put him to work right away,” Kleinschmidt said, with Jack quickly building a routine of helping out therapy animals while eventually joining other groups of developmentally and intellectually disabled adults in their therapies. Now, Jack looks forward to trips to the ranch two to three times per week, with Kleinschmidt noting visible improvements in his behavior and use of language.
“People are actually paying attention to him and interacting with him. And that’s what he thrives on,” Kleinschmidt said.
Coping Together, which currently operates out of an Orland Park office and the Frankfort ranch, is hoping to expand operations with the help of a recent grant Skas said she applied to on a whim. Kubota Tractor Corporation announced Coping Together as one of its 10 grant recipients earlier this month, providing $25,000 for a new mower and an additional $25,000 Skas said will fund a self serve coffee and snack station for clients and family members who bring them to the ranch.
The coffee station will be stocked and monitored by students who come to the ranch to learn skills to help them transition from high school to postsecondary life, some of whom were busy Thursday afternoon cleaning horse stables and the ranch’s indoor arena. Partnerships include Rich Township High School and Tinley Park’s iCan Dream Center.
Skas said the coffee shop will be part of Therapy Town, a homey area dedicated to individual and group therapy sessions including animals. Current in-house therapists will have their own offices, and quiet areas will be available for clients who might be overstimulated or wanting their own space.
Skas prides herself on providing a wide range of services and resources to meet clients where they’re at. They include adults with disabilities as well as couples, families, veterans and just about anyone who could benefit from working with animals.
“For example, if you were having a hard time cleaning your house … we’ll have the clients, whether or not they’re group or individual, go out and create an obstacle course,” Skas said.
The goal in Skas’ example is for the client or clients to create different courses representing different rooms in a house, where they will later lead a horse or other animal.
“Usually they’ll give them a hard time,” Skas said about the animal. The exercise allows the client to problem-solve on the spot, thinking of ways to change the course or their approach with the animal step by step.
“So instead of someone being hard on themselves as to why they’re not getting something done, they now realize why they were being too hard on themselves,” Skas said. “I expected to be able to get something completed, but I could still do it. It might not be in that way that I originally envisioned it, but that’s for the client to come on their own.”
Coping Together is hosting a fundraiser on Oct. 5 designed to raise money for the Therapy Town project, which is still in its planning stages, Skas said.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
