Meet our Therapy Dog
Diego Montego is a young mini Bernedoodle that joined Flourish to become a service dog for therapy clients. Once he is older and trained, Diego will be happy to provide signals of safety, no judgment, and comfort by utilizing his grounded nervous system and his innate purpose to serve others.
At Flourish! we incorporate attachment and polyvagal theories in our approach to mental wellness and bringing in a therapy dog works beautifully with these two theories. With attachment theory in mind, Diego and his mom Cyndi will learn how to become attuned to each other during his key developmental period. Cyndi will nurture and comfort Diego based on what she has learned through attuning to him with the hope of leading Diego towards secure attachment. Theoretically, this attunement, an internal ‘knowing’ that he has protection, nurturing, and guidance, will give his nervous system the flexibility he needs to respond to danger but then quickly recover.
Diego’s service to our clients will be based on polyvagal theory; this theory outlines the three physiological states within the autonomic nervous system that influence our capacity to regulate emotions. For instance, if a client is talking about a recent or past experience that was painful and their physiological state moves into the sympathetic arousal state (i.e. panic, overwhelm), Diego can be part of an emotional regulation strategy in session to help the client move into a state of ease (ventral vagal).
Stay tuned to Diego’s development
Cyndi thought it would be fun to document Diego’s development using an attachment lens though she isn’t great at having the phone readily available to do this documenting (ha!).
But she hopes to do the best she can with short videos and specific pictures that illustrate attunement, nurturing, delight, protection, guidance, and boundaries – all pillars of healthy attachment.
Follow Diego on Instagram @Diego.Montego.ATX to see if Cyndi is being a ‘good enough’ mom – attachment research informs us that she only has to be a good nurturer 33% of the time for healthy attachment. We are sure that Cyndi’s compassionate and generous heart will give him much more than 33%.
