Note: This is Excerpt #30 in Diane’s Diary. If you would like to read previous excerpts, you can find Diane’s Diary 1-29 here.
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Before I left for India I had been introduced via email to a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) named Heather who brings her dog, Moby, to work with her every day. She loved the idea of filming the work that she and Moby do to help share more benefits of the human-animal bond.
On the phone, she told me how powerful it is to have Moby in her sessions. She spoke with a bunch of her clients and many of them agreed to participate in the film because they love having Moby there! We agreed ahead of time that she would do mini-sessions and would not be discussing anything too personal while I was there, for obvious reasons.
I called Carrie, who had filmed the LAX mini-doc with me. She is lovely, has a small camera and is very unobtrusive. We found a date in January 2020 that worked for everyone and made all of the preparations to arrive early afternoon and spend a couple of hours filming. Carrie and I decided that since traffic could be horrible (we live in Los Angeles after all) that we should get an early start and grab lunch near Heather’s office.
We got really lucky and the Thai restaurant in the strip mall was amazing. Not only were they accommodating to my vegan diet, but the food was delicious. Even though Heather’s office is about 35-45 minutes away from home, I have entertained making the drive down just to eat that food again. How does this have anything to do with filming? It doesn’t. But whenever I think about filming that day, I think about that food and decided it deserved a place in this post. It was that good.
Back to the story. Everyone who showed up at Heather’s office that day was gracious. Moby is adorable and Aristelle, one of the children we filmed said, “He brings out my good side.” As one of the families shared, they call it “The Moby Appointment,” and for the longest time, the kids didn’t even know Heather’s name.
This doesn’t bother Heather at all. Heather gets it and has a giant heart. The filming went well, Carrie was a delight to work with, and Heather’s clients were willing participants.
If you haven’t heard Heather speak about how important Moby is in her practice or met the families that she and Moby serve, or witnessed Moby in action, I invite you to take three minutes and watch the mini-documentary about Moby the Therapy Dog.
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The Science And Magic of the Human-Animal Bond Interview Series: Meet people doing important human-animal bond work in this interview series.