In Brazil, reptiles invite themselves to therapy

June 14, 2023

“I’m not afraid,” assures David de Oliveira Gomes, while a yellow boa with brown spots gently wraps around his neck.

This 15-year-old Brazilian teenager with autism attends a therapeutic center in Sao Paulo that uses reptiles to help patients with various disorders relax and improve their motor skills or their communication with others.

“His name is Gold, he’s cold and he eats mice,” says the tall, shaven-headed man, who smiles as the snake slithers along his field jacket.

“For David, it’s a work of memory and elaboration of speech”, explains Andrea Ribeiro, speech therapist and specialist in therapies with animals.

She receives young people with autism, people with disabilities, but also patients suffering from depression or anxiety attacks.

Sessions with reptiles take place under a large canopy, near a stud farm where other patients are in contact with horses.

The therapist is spoiled for choice, with several species of snakes, lizards or turtles, and even a small caiman.

This type of therapy has not received scientific validation. But “medicine has shown that when a person is in contact with an animal, his body releases neurotransmitters such as serotonin or beta-endorphin, which give a feeling of well-being”, says Andrea Ribeiro.

10-year-old Gabriel Pinheiro isn’t afraid to pet a small caiman with sharp teeth. “It’s his favorite,” reveals the therapist.

“He’s wet,” said the autistic boy, looking the saurian in the eye through his thick glasses.

Andrea Ribeiro has him describe the contrasts of the animal’s body, its “hard” scales and its “soft” belly.

Then they sing the “caiman song”, to exercise their auditory memory.

“He is very happy to come here”, says his mother Cristina de Oliveira Pinheiro.

In four years of therapy, Gabriel has made progress “in understanding, communication and motor skills”, she says.

With reptiles, “we obtain better results, and more quickly, (…) because the patients feel good and want to learn”.

Autistic patients, for example, have “no prejudice” against snakes or caimans, which usually inspire fear.

And reptiles “are emotionless”, unlike dogs, which, as they are often very affectionate and demand attention, can cause embarrassment in autistic children.

Paulo Palacio Santos, 34, suffered severe neurological damage after a head injury in an accident that nearly wiped out his motor skills. His lower limbs are paralyzed, the upper ones barely move, and he can’t speak.

Andrea Ribeiro places a boa on his neck, the cold skin of which provokes a swallowing reflex in him.

Then she slides a finer snake across her face, which stimulates the muscles around her mouth.

The therapist is always accompanied by the biologist Beatriz Araujo, who makes sure to avoid the slightest risk for patients in contact with reptiles, the possession of which is regulated by the public environmental body Ibama.

“There are risks in contact with any type of animal. Here, we do not use poisonous snakes, and I constantly monitor reptiles,” she explains.

Andrea Ribeiro assures that no incident has been deplored in 10 years of therapy.