Featuring Guest Speaker

Rachel McPherson ~ Founder and Executive Director of The Good Dog Foundation and Author

Anyone who has ever had a relationship with a dog will tell you: They want nothing more than to give love and be loved in return. Rachel McPherson will draw on her experience as the Founder and Executive Director of The Good Dog Foundation, the largest animal-assisted therapy organization on the East Coast, to discuss amazing stories of dogs that bring hope and healing into our lives.

Much has been said about the heroic roles dogs played following September 11th and Hurricane Katrina in providing support and comfort for the families and victims of these terrible tragedies, but the truth is that millions of dogs around the world are heroes every day. These therapy and service dogs (and often quite ordinary, "uncertified" dogs just like your own!) can:

• serve as the perfect audience for kids who need help with practicing and improving their reading skills
• hold troubled families together
• provide a calm and centering presence for autistic children, and
• help individuals who have lost the ability to walk to more easily navigate the world

Each and every dog possesses the healing power of unconditional love. During this mastery hour Rachel will discuss how dogs bring hope and healing into our lives.

More About Rachel..

Rachel McPherson is the Founder and Executive Director of The Good Dog Foundation. A native Mississippian, Rachel was a producer for film and television prior to creating The Good Dog Foundation.

Rachel is active in numerous professional and cultural associations, serving as a leader in fundraising, development, event planning and production efforts. Originally having set out to produce a documentary on therapy dog services, Rachel fell in love with the work, stopped making the film, and created The Good Dog Foundation. Under her leadership, The Good Dog Foundation helped change New York State law to allow therapy dogs into health care facilities. Good Dog now makes more than 200,000 visits each year to people in health care, social service, educational, and community facilities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and at disaster sites around the country. Good Dog has won awards from the ASPCA and the Red Cross for therapy dog services given to families of victims, rescue workers, and others after the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001. After 9/11, Good Dog created a disaster response course for its volunteers, and it was deployed by the Mississippi Department of Mental Health to assist families in need in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Good Dog has been honored several times on the floor of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

As Founder and Executive Director of The Good Dog Foundation, Rachel has heard and witnessed many extraordinary stories of the healing power of dogs. She has authored her first book, Every Dog Has a Gift (Tarcher/Penguin), in which she chronicles the quietly heroic deeds of a variety of dogs—from service and therapy dogs to the lovable household dogs that bring us happiness every day. Rachel is currently studying animal communication with the Animal Spirit Healing & Education® Network. She is in the process of becoming certified in ayurvedic nutrition.

Rachel was named New Yorker of the Week by New York 1 News in May 2006 for creating and running The Good Dog Foundation which has been featured on the Today Show, CNN, PBS, and elsewhere.

Rachel lives with her husband, two children, three dogs, and a rabbit in Brooklyn, NY.

Originally Aired: October 6, 2010