NEWS AND OPINION: The Sunday Times reports on the recovery of Emily Hand after her release as I Hamas hostage. She was held captive for seven weeks and has returned to Israel in an exchange programme between Israel and Hamas. Thomas Hand, her father, was understandably desperate for her return. At one stage he thought that she had been killed and in one way that pleased him because he believed that she would no longer suffer. He was that desperate about his daughter’s well-being.
Emily Hand is gradually coming back to life; to her normal life. On her release she was thin and exhausted “with matted hair and lice” according to The Sunday Times report.
Her father wanted to see her back to her normal self, the girl who loved to sing and dance. She has regained her confidence which she had lost during the 50 days “of horror she spent in Gaza”.
And I want to talk about animal therapy briefly in this article because although it is not mentioned by The Sunday Times a picture speaks louder than words. The picture on this page shows Emily Hand hugging a horse. I would regard this as a therapy horse. The horse might not be an official therapy horse but he or she is delivering therapy as all animals can do to traumatised children.
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The non-judgemental, unconditional love that animals deliver is healing. This is the point of the article. To promote therapy animals. I don’t know if the picture illustrates a deliberate programme of animal therapy for Emily Hand. It might not. It might simply be an informal meeting of her and a horse who she hugs. It doesn’t really matter because it is still animal therapy in my view.
Another key factor in Emily Hand’s rehabilitation is, according to a senior child and adolescent psychiatrist, Noa Vardi, “responsible and caring adults alongside them during and after a traumatic experience”. Emily has a wonderful father it seems to me. I don’t know if she has a living mother because it’s not stated in the article that I’m reading.
Vardi said: “If you have a caregiver who is fine, who is resilient, who can protect you and be there for you then you’re much more protected than if your caregiver has PTSD himself or herself or suffers from the same situation as you or is unavailable for you.”
Apparently, hostages have come back to their lives in a state that was “almost unrecognisable”. I think we need to stress the importance of therapy animals in rehabilitation at this juncture. Especially for children. They are very healing. And so is Emily Hand’s father.
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