Paws to Thrive
Healing through
human-animal connection.
About Me
I'm Shelly Fisher, a dedicated nurse and Animal-Assisted Interventionist with over 25 years of clinical experience. As the daughter of a dairy farmer, I’ve always felt the deep, nurturing bond between humans, animals, and nature. Now, I am channeling that compassion into creating animal-assisted wellness gardens. In 2021, I established the Canine Wellness Garden at Eskenazi Health, the first human-animal connection space of its kind in a healthcare setting. I now help build these therapeutic environments in hospitals, care centers, and academic campuses across the United States. Let’s connect to bring your vision of animal-assisted services to life.
Creating Spaces for Connection
As hospitals and research centers increasingly recognize the health benefits of bio-affiliation and the human-animal bond, I have seen firsthand the positive impact of intentional spaces designed for connection with animals and nature. Animal-assisted services and wellness gardens promote mental health and motivation, significantly improving patient outcomes. These peaceful and relaxed environments prove to be highly beneficial to both animals and people.
What Our Clients & Partners Say
“A critical variable in a dog being able to join a patient in their health and recovery journey is ensuring that the dog themselves is flourishing during these carefully planned interventions. A canine therapy garden offers a number of critical elements to health and wellness, including the opportunity to spend time together interacting with a dog in a playful, peaceful or contemplative way, emphasizing the potential for human-canine connection, freedom of movement, and bio-affiliative healing.”
“Her canine garden is a national model. Shelly’s commitment and creativity are unmatched.”
“Shelly saw potential and made it real. Our garden now serves patients, staff, and animals. It’s a true sanctuary.”
Build your own human-animal healing experience
There are many ways to foster therapeutic connections with nature in a wide range of settings, providing great health benefits to adults and kids alike. Paws to Thrive designs unique infrastructure to facilitate the human-animal bond and natural healing.
Building Infrastructure For:
Human-animal interactions for mental health, trauma healing, stress relief, and recovery
Animal-assisted physical and occupational therapy
Canine-assisted literacy programs and reading nooks
Nature-based therapy and play therapy
Agility courses and exercise areas for human-animal enrichment
Wellness gardens and horticulture therapy
Outdoor connection and sensory relaxation areas
Human-animal partnership labs and workshops
Possible Therapy Partners:
Service-Trained Dogs & Cats
Horses & Ponies (Equines)
Goats, Pigs, & Farm Animals
Bearded Dragons & other Emotional Support Animals
Birds & Natural Wildlife Observation
Schedule a free consultation:
Let’s work together to create a wellness space that fits your needs and goals. In our initial consultation, we’ll discuss how to promote healing through the human-animal bond, space planning, design options, stakeholder engagement, funding opportunities, and more. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to bring your wellness vision to life. Book a meeting below!
Contact Us
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!
