Creature Comfort

Avi Benmordechai, her therapist, saw it was clear that his client wasn’t ready for talk therapy. She sat facing him, staring above his head at the wall behind him, hardly saying a word. Avi realized she needed a different tack. “Why don’t you come see my animals?” he proposed. “I have some awesome furry friends who are helpful to some of my clients.”

Devori’s whole expression changed when she entered the room full of insects, reptiles, birds, a miniature pony, and therapy dogs and a cat. But she wasn’t quite ready to let go of her hostile persona. “You should get a tarantula,” she said.

Two weeks later, when Devori arrived, Avi took her straight to the animal room. There, in a cage, was a real-life tarantula the size of her hand. “You can hold it if you want,” he said.

The tarantula was a game changer, Avi says. “She was flattered. She felt like I’d heard her. I would convince her to hold the tarantula, and while she was focused on it, she was slowly able to talk about other things that bothered her.”