Building kids’ trust with animals & trainers is key to Dolphin Reef’s therapy model

Photos and Story by Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

One of the most popular films screened at last year’s Dayton Jewish International Film Fest was Dolphin Boy, a 2011 documentary about a teenager from an Arab village in Israel who surmounts post-traumatic stress syndrome when his father takes him for therapy at Dolphin Reef in Eilat.

Earlier this year, when the American Jewish Press Association sponsored a press tour of Israel — subsidized by EL AL and the Israel Ministry of Tourism — half of our group found itself in Eilat. This resort town at the very southern tip of Israel borders Egypt to the west, Jordan to the east, and the shore of the Red Sea to the south, with its promenade of shops, restaurants, and luxury hotels.

On this overcast day, our guide took us to Dolphin Reef. Founded in 1990 as a private facility, Dolphin Reef’s visitors can meet and observe dolphins in their natural habitat as they snorkel and dive with guides.

The reef also features a private beach, three relaxation pools, two restaurants and an activity center for children.

Swimming with the dolphins was on the bucket list for most in our party.

Despite the best efforts of one guide to stuff me into a diving suit complete with oxygen tank, Dolphin Reef staff wouldn’t let me meet the dolphins on their watery turf because of my two herniated disks.

As my colleagues began to frolic among the dolphins, I sought out the trainers behind Dolphin Reef’s assistive therapy program.

“We work in a very different way from every other place,” says trainer Advat Gal, who has been with Dolphin Reef on and off over 17 years.

“It’s the only place that works with dolphins on a relationship that’s based on trust and love and knowing each other and not on food,” she says.

The dolphins feed themselves, she says. The trainers see them hunting every day. But because there’s not enough food, the trainers feed them as well.

“The food here is given without being asked to do anything,” Gal says. “It’s not conditioned on anything. And we build the relationship with them by spending time with them. We spend a lot of time with them, without any food, in the water, outside the water. They are always together in this natural environment, they’re living as close as possible as a group to nature.”

Gal says when Dolphin Reef opened, the owners’ original idea was to allow the dolphins to choose where they wanted to be.

“We had an open sea project for seven years,” she says. “There was a gate under the water that was open for 24 hours; they went in and out whenever they wanted.”

The dolphins always came back. But several of them would come back with injuries inflicted by people. In 1998, Dolphin Reef closed the sea gate for the dolphins’ own protection.

Occasionally, when the nets that keep the dolphins in the reef tear, the dolphins can go out until they are repaired. “They always come back again,” Gal says.

Trainer Sophie Donio established the therapy program shortly after Dolphin Reef opened, in 1991. Donio observed the strong connection among dolphins and people.

“She came up with the idea of trying to help kids and then she built it,” Gal says. “She started developing it in her head and learned psychology and social services and that’s how it started.”

Gal says with pride that though dolphin therapy is offered around the world, Dolphin Reef — Israel’s only such program — does not reward the dolphins with food but with friendship and trust. It’s all about their freedom to choose.

Because of that, it takes a while to build relationships. It also limits the number of client referrals Dolphin Reef accepts.

“It’s a very small project because we work long-term,” she says. “And you can’t overload that kind of situation.”

Gal says Dolphin Reef currently provides therapy for 12 children in Eilat, four from Israel’s north, and four from abroad.

“So these kids are coming for a minimum of a year, usually more. And then they sit with us on the platform very close with the dolphins, they swim with us daily when they come, to get to know the dolphins inside the water and the dolphins will get to know them.”

Children they’ve served have had post-traumatic stress, autism, Down syndrome, ADD/ADHD, and other behavioral issues.

“A few of the kids came here after serious trauma and they didn’t speak and they had bad aggression,” Gal says. “And they slowly opened up and started talking and gradually have been able to go back to the life and to deal with the trauma they’ve been through.”

This was Morad’s situation, the teenager whom filmmakers Dani Merkin and Yonatan Nir followed for four years for the documentary Dolphin Boy.

“I think it was done very well because it showed a very true perspective of things,” Gal  says of the film. “It didn’t show the dolphins as magicians or making miracles. It shows things as they are.”

Though Gal talks of beautiful results from dolphin therapy, she emphasizes that Dolphin Reef can’t promise anything. The dolphins must choose to show up and help.

“With the dolphins, we’re here for them, they’re not here for us. We’re coexisting together. But most of the time they do come because they really love people. So 95 percent, we see very good results.”

The child’s relationship with the dolphins is one key to successful therapy; the other is his or her relationship with the trainer.

“When we get a kid, we stay with him,” she says. “You have to bring the person you are.”

For more information about Dolphin Reef, go to http://www.dolphinreef.co.il/. Reservations are required for guided snorkeling and diving.