Episode 40: How Humans and Animals Help Each Other: A Conversation with Genie Joseph, PhD

Welcome to the Carouse of Happiness Podcast.

On today’s episode, we’ll talk about our healing relationships with animals. What can we learn from animals to make us better humans? How can we support the healing of animals in our lives? I’ll share a conversation I had with Genie Joseph, founder of the Tucson-based nonprofit organization, the Human-Animal Connection. Genie is a dog trainer, animal communicator, and an animal chaplain. Her organization is dedicated to bringing people and animals together for the healing of both. 

Genie is a recipient of President Obama’s Silver Volunteer Service Award. She and her therapy dog, Sophia, have visited and helped more than 4,000 service members, veterans, youth, elderly, and incarcerated people. Genie hosts the Human-Animal Connection podcast on Pet Life Radio, where she reaches more than 12,000 listeners a month. Genie and I talked about how a pitbull named Oscar changed the trajectory of her life, what animals can teach us about our sense of safety, and how curiosity and choice can be revolutionary in the healing of both humans and animals.

Want to learn more about Genie Joseph and the Human Animal Connnection? Check out their website (with lots of free goodies) here: https://www.thehumananimalconnection.org

The Carousel of Happiness is a nonprofit arts & culture organization dedicated to inspiring happiness, well-being, and service to others through stories and experiences.

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Special thanks to songwriter, performer, and friend of the carousel, Darryl Purpose (https://darrylpurpose.com/), for sharing his song, "Next Time Around," as ou...

Transcript

Welcome to the Carousel of Happiness Podcast. I’m your host, Allie Wagner. 

On last week’s episode, I took you behind the scenes of psychic Deborah Keys’ visit to the carousel. She generously shared her gifts and skills as a House Healer to give the carousel an energetic reading and you learned about a very special angel who looks over the Carousel of Happiness.

On today’s episode, we’re going to switch gears and talk about our healing relationships with animals. What can we learn from animals to make us better humans? I’ll share a conversation I had with Genie Joseph, founder of the Tucson-based nonprofit organization, the Human-Animal Connection. Genie is a dog trainer, animal communicator, and an animal chaplain. Her organization is dedicated to bringing people and animals together for the healing of both. 

Genie is a recipient of President Obama’s Silver Volunteer Service Award. She and her therapy dog, Sophia, have visited and helped more than 4,000 service members, veterans, youth, elderly, and incarcerated people. Genie hosts the Human-Animal Connection podcast on Pet Life Radio, where she reaches more than 12,000 listeners a month. Genie and I talked about how a pitbull named Oscar changed the trajectory of her life, what animals can teach us about our sense of safety, and how curiosity and choice can be revolutionary in the healing of both humans and animals.

Let us begin with today’s story.

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Genie Joseph had a good life before she met Oscar. She was living in Hawaii, teaching improv theater to service members and their families to help them handle stress, cope with trauma, and mitigate their anxiety and depression symptoms. Her work was meaningful and interesting, and it clearly had an impact on the veterans she served.

But everything changed when she met Oscar.

Genie met Oscar at a high-kill shelter in Hawaii. The pitbull mix had had a rough life and it showed. He was covered in scars and scratches, and was missing several teeth. But Genie knew he’d be a good therapy dog. He attuned himself well to human emotions and he had a strong desire to help. According to Genie, only around 20% of dogs have this specific combination of traits that she thinks make them stellar emotional support animals.

So, Genie wasn’t surprised when she brought Oscar with her to meet with a group of veterans. They were sitting in a circle that day and Oscar dutifully went around from soldier to soldier, greeting each and every one. He would say hello, receive some scratches and pets, and then move on to the next person. One by one. 

That part didn’t surprise Genie. What surprised her was that there were some soldiers Oscar refused to dismiss quickly. For some soldiers, Oscar would sit quietly in front of them and wait. And wait. And wait.

He waited patiently and quietly. Without fuss. Without fanfare. Without explanation, without justification. He simply sat. And waited. Furry little pitbull face covered in scars and scratches.

Until, eventually, reluctantly, the soldier in front of him would cave, their defenses softened for just a moment, and that soldier would reach out and give him a quick scratch or a pet.  

Then, when Oscar was satisfied with the amount of attention he received, he would move on to greet the next person in the circle.

That’s when Genie realized – Oscar was giving her an alert. He was giving her a sign. And this alert wasn’t something Genie had taught him to do. It was something he knew intuitively to do. 

Genie realized that Oscar sitting in front of certain soldiers was his way of alerting her to who was suicidal in that moment. This alert was his way of communicating to her what he sensed, and his refusal to move was his way of wiggling past the service member’s defenses, hitting them smack dab in their hearts, one scratch at a time.

Genie was amazed. She had known what healing was possible for service members in her work with improv theater, but she had never seen anything like this. Because of Oscar, she witnessed, with her very own eyes, the softening of defenses in a few moments that would have taken hours or weeks or years with other healing modalities. Oscar made healing simple. And he made it quick.

It was at that moment that she knew she wanted to do this work full-time.

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Genie believes that the soldiers saw themselves in Oscar. He too had been kicked around by life, and it showed. Yet there he was. Self-confident in his intention to give and receive love in this moment. Right now.

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Genie believes one of the greatest lessons we can learn from animals is how to regain our “sense of safety.” Our sense of safety is a foundational component of our well-being. Of all beings. When we are healthy, we orient ourselves toward what is safe and good for us. But when we experience trauma, that compass gets out of whack. After trauma, we tend to point ourselves in the direction of similar traumatic experiences not because they are good for us, but because they are familiar.

You’ve seen this before, right? Maybe you have a friend who goes after the same kind of partner over and over again. Someone who is likely not good for them. Sure, this person might look different, and have a different name, but deep down, they are the same kind of energy, the same kind of experience as the person before them. That is your friend reaching for what is familiar, not what is safe.

Genie says that working with animals can teach us a lot about our own sense of safety. In the animal kingdom, animals naturally move toward what feels good and away from what feels bad. Makes sense, right?

The problem with humans, sometimes, is that we force each other to ignore our sense of safety in the name of social acceptance. For example, we might walk into a party and immediately not like the energy of the space. But we stay anyway, because it would be “rude” to leave so soon. Slowly and gradually, over time, we learn to disregard our sense of safety to our own detriment.

Animals don’t do this. When they feel unsafe, when they don’t like the energy of a person or a place, they respond accordingly. They might move into another room or bark or refuse to get in the car. They are naturally wired, when not traumatized, to go with what feels safe to them.

Genie explains that her two therapy donkeys, Lily and Rosie, can teach us a lot about the sensory experience of safety. Lily and Rosie came to live with Genie when they lost their home in the LA wildfires. They are a bonded pair, mother and daughter, and they love doing healing work with Genie.

When visitors come to the Human-Animal Connection Sanctuary in Tucson and spend time with Rosie and Lily they learn what it feels like in their bodies to feel a sense of safety. Rosie and Lily help participants attune to that sense of safety and, later, how to set kind, but firm boundaries when they feel unsafe.

The truth is, our bodies are registering this sense of safety all of the time, whether we’re aware of it or not. And what Genie, Lily, and Rosie do is they help participants become more conscious of how we are impacted by the energy of others. And what to do when that energy doesn’t feel so good to us. 

Genie tells me a story about a time she and her dogs were attending an event and they were rushing to get out of the house. After she had left, she couldn’t remember if she had given Lily and Rosie water. Even though she was late, she turned around, drove back to the house, and checked on their water.

When Genie came into their paddock, Lily and Rosie bolted away from her, not something they normally do. But in that moment, they did because she was rushed and scattered, and they wanted nothing to do with her energy. Genie noticed it, made sure they got water, and left the house. When she returned and was calm, both donkeys came out to say hello like they normally do. 

Animals will let us know what energy we’ve got going on, and more importantly, they will let us know if that energy is something that feels good to them or not. This is how they teach us by example.

Genie says that Lily and Rosie help human beings become aware of the sensations in their bodies that tell them they are safe, and the ones that tell them they are unsafe. Then, they teach human beings how to honor those internal sensations and set boundaries, if they need to. Just as they did when Genie came home in a rush. 

Genie says that the donkeys don’t mind if we’re scared. Or if we’re angry. What they don’t like is when we try to pretend to feel something we’re not; they do not enjoy or understand mixed emotions. It is confusing to them. So, they can teach us how to own our feelings, regardless of what those feelings are. 

Genie tells me about a 22-year-old developmentally disabled woman in a wheelchair who visited Rosie and Lily. She was unable to speak and was easily triggered by noise and sudden movements, something that created stress for her family. They often found themselves apologizing or explaining their daughter’s behavior to other human beings.

When the woman arrived, the donkeys surrounded her immediately, offering her the sense of protection that they knew she craved. This allowed the woman to relax, as well as her caregivers, who were frequently on alert because of her outward displays of emotions in public.

Genie explains that the donkeys didn’t see the woman’s disability. They didn’t see her wheelchair. They didn’t see the trappings of her condition. What they saw was her soul’s essence and they responded to that accordingly. Offering her soul exactly what it needed in that moment.

And everyone was able to take a big, deep breath. 

Genie has so many of these stories. Of interactions between humans and animals that allows for an understanding of something deeper between us. A relationship that transcends our bodies and allows us to feel what it feels like to connect soul-to-soul.

And it’s not just humans who are beneficiaries of the work Genie does. Her organization focuses on bringing humans and animals together for the healing of both. 

Genie tells me about a dog she met at a shelter. He was very withdrawn and didn’t play with the other dogs in the yard. She decided to take him home. When she did, she let him outside in her yard and watched him. Watched him decide how he wanted to spend his time. First he moved into the shade. Then he sniffed the ground. Next, he’d get a drink of water. Moment by moment, Genie watched him make choices. Do this, not that. Sniff this, not that. 

And each time he made a choice, she noticed he regained a sense of agency. A sense of power. Each time he made a choice he became more empowered. Animals, and human beings for that matter, who do not have the freedom to choose, slowly, over time, become disempowered and traumatized.

That is why it is important to Genie that all of the therapy animals she works with have a choice. They have free will. If they don’t want to visit with humans on a particular day, she does not force them. Because she knows when animals have a choice, they can heal. 

That’s because curiosity and fear cannot coexist. They are different frequencies. You cannot be curious and be fearful at the same time. They are different radio stations. In fact, according to Genie, curiosity is the antidote to fear, which is what she saw in the shelter dog in her backyard.

When I ask Genie for her advice on how we can be better companions and supporters of our animal friends, she says acknowledging that animals have their own innate wisdom is a huge first step. They know what is best for them. And honoring those desires is a huge component to gaining their trust.

She says when you’re giving your animal friends some love, be sure to pay attention to whether or not you are giving touch or taking touch. If you are giving touch to your animal companion, you’re paying attention to them, you’re noticing if they are pulling away or leaning in. You are observing their preferences and honoring those preferences. That means, when they’re done you’re done.

When we take touch from the animals in our lives, we aren’t present. We’re not noticing whether or not they are enjoying it. And, if they show us behavior that indicates they are not enjoying it, we continue to do it anyway.

If you’re interested in learning more about Genie, check out her website in the show notes. She is available for consultations, both in-person and remote, and you can find tons of free information on her website. If you want to understand more about the healing power of our connection to animals be sure to check out her podcast on Pet Life Radio.

In the meantime, take care. Be well. And, as we like to say at the Carousel of Happiness, “don’t delay joy.” And we’ll see you next time around.