ABSTRACT
I am an associate professor in the Special Education Department, School of Psychology and Sciences of Education at Babeş-Bolyai University (BBU), located in the North-Western part of Romania. I have a double degree in psychology and biology and a PhD in natural sciences (animal behavior) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. While doing my PhD research on the social behavior of wild house mice from 2000 to 2004, I had the chance to come across the field of Animal-Assisted Therapy by interacting with one of the professors in the Department of Animal Behavior, Dennis C. Turner. At that time, Dr. Turner was the President of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO) and Founder of the Institute for Applied Ethology and Animal Psychology, Switzerland.
