The Therian Timeline

Guide for professionals working with Therians

There have been therianthropes throughout the history of humanity and back into the dim reaches of prehistory, and at least since the Middle Ages, professionals have had to deal with them. Before then, and still to a large extent in Eastern Europe (see H. Senn's Werewolves and Vampires in Romania), they seemed to have been those strange neighbors that were sometimes useful, but should otherwise just be left alone.

During the Inquisition, they were often executed. Afterwards, perhaps beginning with the case of Jean Garnier, therianthropes were considered mentally ill and treated as such (See Adam Douglas' "The Beast Within" for a good popularist history of lycanthropy).

More recently, researchers are beginning to question whether therianthropy is a disease at all and may be simply a manifestation of the differences in a subset of humanity. I will be reviewing a group of recent studies that look at the phenomenon and will try to distill the information into a guide for professionals that may come in contact with it.

Therianthropy is an instance of what is becoming commonly known as an anomalous experience (AE) which also includes things like paranormal experiences, alien abduction, ecstatic experiences, and the like. "Anomalous experience" is rather a catch-all phrase that describes the kinds of cases that appear occasionally in professional work that is quite disimilar to the kind of cases that professionals are trained to deal with.

Therianthropy itself is the experience of self-identification, at some level, of a human with a nonhuman type. The older term "Were" and the newer term "Therian" are technically synonymous. "Therian" was invented as a more "socially acceptable" term for a Were. "Therian" tends to have much broader use, applying to anyone who claims self-identification as a nonhuman animal. "Were" tends to be more accepted offline, so the tenent "If someone says they're a Therian, then they're a Therian" tends to apply more to the term "Therian". Nevertheless, for this report, I will be using the two terms interchangeably, and I will be referring to people who feel that they did not choose to be a therianthrope and feel that it is inherent in their nature.

The studies by E.C. Roxburgh and R. E. Evenden reviewed below indicate that many professionals feel ill-prepared to work with these cases and that the clients themselves feel uncomfortable talking about their experiences. Hopefully, the recent research will provide much needed bridges between persons with abnormal experiences and the professionals attempting to help them find solutions to life problems.

The studies

I will be looking at five recent studies dealing with the interaction of professionals (mostly psychologists) and therianthropic clients specifically and clients with abnormal experiences in general. I will also bring in an older (no longer extant) website dealing with the same, some older clinical studies dealing with therianthropy, and some of my own observations of the Therian community. Then I will try to distill some points from the mass of information that should be helpful for both professionals and their clients.

Although the Roxburgh-Evenden studies deal mostly with therapist-client relationships, I would like to suggest more general recommendations for other kinds of professionals as well - lawyers, judges, pastors, etc.

Clinical interactions

"Clinical Interaction with Anthropomorphic Phenomenon" (Roberts, et al. 2015) was published by researchers in the International Anthropomorphic Research Project in the journal, Health and Social Work. This group consists of researchers from several universities who have been studying the Furry community since, at least, 2007. The focus was on the Furry community but the results may generalize somewhat to the Therian community. Although the two communities are not the same nor is one a subset of the other, there is considerable overlap and both Furry and Therian experience could probably be accurately said to be AEs.

In this study, researchers of the IARP conducted six focus groups over three days consisting of 59 self-identified furries. The study indicates that identity formation is a central issue in both communities and that Furries resemble other groups that experience AEs in that they are reluctant to disclose to therapists. The authors discuss strategies appropriate to health professionals for interacting with Furry clients.

Other Than Human

"Other-Than-Human: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry Into the Spiritual Development of Therians" (Allen, 2014) looks at pastoral counseling applied to therian clients. A narrative analysis was used to dissect interviews of six therians. The results were recast into a fantasy short story following a pastoral counselor in a hospital as  a "vision" of the lives of therians. The author ended the paper with a cautionary anecdote of a missed opportunity to prevent the maltreatment of a therian child.

"Most people think you're a fruitloop"

In the Roxburgh-Evenden study (Roxburgh & Evenden, 2016a) "Most people think you're a fruit loop," the researchers interviewed eight clients whose counseling sessions included the discussion of at least one anomalous experience (AE). They used face-to-face semi-structured interviews and an inductive thematic analysis to determine common themes in the counseling experiences. They obtained four common themes: "Why are you looking at that airy, fairy crap?", "It was like banging your head against a brick wall", "It kind of shut the door", and "Having someone to normalize and say you're not crazy, you're not weird." Implications derived from the results were discussed with implications for both therapists and clients.
Although none of the participants were therians, and therianthropy was only mentioned in the list of anomalous experiences, the conclusions seemed relevant to therapy for therian clients.

They daren't tell

Roxburgh and Evenden (Roxburgh & Evenden, 2016b) also interviewed eight therapists who had worked with at least one client who had reported an AE. Again, none of the AEs involved therianthropy, but the conclusions are expected to apply to cases involving AEs generally. Again, using thematic analysis, the researchers identified four common themes: "Testing the waters," "Exploration not explanation," "It's special, but it's not unique," and "Forewarned and forearmed." Again, implications for both therapists and clients were discussed.

The Theta site

The Theta website is no longer available but the home page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150304081058/http://theta.kinfire.org), the Research Page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150304111535/http://theta.kinfire.org/?page_id=13) and the For Therapists Page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150304111301/http://theta.kinfire.org/?page_id=11) have been archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. "Theta" stood for "Therianthropy Education and Therapeutic Alliance" and was intended as a resource for therians seeking professional help and for professionals seeking information about therian issues.
They offered informative pages and open source downloads. The Research Page provided links to substantive research and popular books on therianthropy. The Therapists Page provided answers to questions that might arise for therapists working with therian clients. And there was a downloads page providing a proposed DSM entry for "species dysphoria", a "cheat sheet" of information for therapists, and a trifold brochure for therians who may have been contemplating seeking counseling.

 It was a great attempt for a time when research was still scarce, but it showed some weaknesses that must be taken into account when using the resource. First, it was composed by therians from their own experiences which may well have been different from other therians' experiences. They were responsible about this by often repeating "Some therians report...." and "Some therians experience...".

Also, they demonstrated some misunderstanding about how professional psychology works. For instance, the DSM entry was a modification of the entry on gender dysphoria modified to reflect species dysphoria. The problem is that this approach didn't take into account the "S" in "DSM". DSM entries are the result of the collection of symptoms by many practitioners working with the specific disorders. The data is subjected to statistical analysis to determine the widespread prevalence of the symptoms and to quantify them in a meaningful way for diagnosis.

Species dysphoria may be similar to gender dysphoria on the surface, but it hasn't been established how similar the underlying mechanisms are, or if or when the analogy breaks down.

The information provided by the site can still be useful given awareness of those caveats.

Clinical lycanthropy studies

There is a considerable body of work concerning clinical lycanthropy and, despite the common opinion that it is not relevant to modern therianthropy, I cannot see the basis of that opinion. A good anthology of case histories is Richard Noll's Vampires, Werewolves, and Demons.

A review of the included articles and others published outside Noll indicates that there may be two underlying dynamics. One set of cases present people who are profoundly disturbed but whose symptoms vanish with treatment by neuroleptic drugs. The other involves people who seem more mildly affected but whose symptoms do not go away completely with treatment. I call the latter "intractable lycanthropy". The disabling symptoms of mood disorder and such can be controlled by medication but the "delusion" that they are not human doesn't vanish. Further, the case histories of intractable lycanthropes sound a lot like posts on therian forums.

I suggest that intractable lycanthropes are therians that present clinically because of other problems and that the case histories have failed to disentangle the therianthropy from the presenting complaints.

It is evident in reports of therians that therianthropy is rarely (if ever) a disabling condition.

Personal observations

I have had considerable opportunities to observe the therian community. I regularly attended Southeast Howl events from 2000 to 2003, and became the host from 2003 to 2013. I also helped others establish howls and visited therian groups across the southeastern United States. These experiences allowed me to interact with therians individually, in groups and with other groups.

A primary purpose of the Therian Timeline webpage is to collect substantive information about the therian community and I use it to report my own observations, trying to differentiate between those and information generated by more rigorous  studies. I include some of the more striking observations below.

Conclusions for practitioners

Therian communities exist both online and offline and offer places where therians can be open about their differences and be authentic, and where they can find support which is often lacking in their larger communities. "Clinical Interaction with Anthropomorphic Phenomenon" (Roberts, et al. 2015) indicates that inclusion in the established Furry community is beneficial to furries, and the same is likely to be true of Therians. Therefore, the general health of Therians may be improved considerably by their inclusion in the Therian community and Therian gatherings.

The nonhuman identities that therians adopt seem to be a natural part of their development and should not be thought of as dysfunctional. Most therians who persent clinically usually do so because of problems not directly related to their therianthropy, which they tend to avoid bringing up in a clinical setting. But that same identity is an integral part of a Therian's makeup and should be included in a therapist/therian client relationship. An open, nonjudgemental,  explorational approach by the therapist would go a long way in bringing this integral part of a therian's life into the dialogue.

The IARP report (Roberts, et al. 2015) points out that furries with poor social skills find the Furry community a beneficial place to learn those skills. One of the problems often encountered by therians is that, where their human sides may have completely appropriate social skills, their Therian aspects, because of social isolation, may not. Therian gatherings are one venue where Therians can feel free to allow the therian sides of their personalities to express and be exposed to other people in a nonadversarial environment. Again, therians need exposure to other therians.

Therians may not experience the level of stigmatization by popular media experienced by furries (Roberts, et al. 2015), because they have been somewhat less visual and the exposure therians have had (such as in Weird, True, and Freaky: Humanimals (2008) Animal Planet Video.) has focused much less on sexual deviance, still, some therians have expressed the fear that, if their therianthropy were known in the general public, their jobs might be in jeopardy (ParaX Radio, 2009). Of course, confidentiality is at the heart of most professional codes of conduct, but practitioners should make it a point that therian clients' identity as therians will not be disclosed to the public.

It was pointed out in the IARP study (Roberts, et al. 2015),  that many furries deny "important facets of their identity" in order to conceal their furry identities. This is also true of many therians which can lead to stress related health problems "as a result of the need to be constantly vigilant." The authors state that the need to conceal in a clinical setting may undermine the therapist/client relationship which is central to the counseling process. Some fears expressed by furries: the fear of having their interests trivialized, the fear of being associated with negative public perceptions about their community, or the fear that the therapist may be perceived as a source of the client's problem instead of the source of positive benefits experienced by the client - may well apply to therian clients as well. This study recommends that therapists provide safe space signs to indicate that the therapist is aware of these fears and is willing to protect the therapist/client relationship from those fears.

Clinicians can capitalize on the positive benefits the client experience by interaction with their communities and can, for example, explore the skills learned and positive changes that take place at therian meetings and other interactions with other therians (Roberts, et al. 2015, p7). "Clinicians should ensure that fandom participation is a source of positivity for the furry client while monitoring the furry carefully for signs of extreme escapism." 

The post-con depression mentioned by Roberts, et al. (Roberts, et al. 2015, p8) has it's therian equivalent in the post-howl depression  and clinicians could be a great help for therians transitioning from  time spent with other therians to a life where their client may be isolated from other therians and immersed in the mainstream society.(Roberts, et al. 2015, p7) suggests "A bit of information about the furry community, coupled with an open-minded and unconditionally positive, nonjudgmental approach to their furry identity, may go a long way to helping retain furry clients and ultimately help them through their problems, which are no different than the problems experienced by any other client."

It is important that professionals not assume that therianthropy is the cause of their therian clients' problems and realize the positive dimensions of therianthropy in their lives.

Troy Allen (Allen 2014 pp 107-111) repeats the conclusion that practitioners need training in dealing with therians. He also  makes three other points. His focus is on spiritual/pastoral counseling, but they are similar to conclusions obtained from other studies, so I will assume that they apply globally.

The first point is that community is of preeminent importance to a therian and loss (or absence) of community can be central to a therian's crisis.

The second point is that a nonjudgemental approach is called for when serving a therian client.

Nonjudgementalism involves "unconditional positive regard and avoidance of imposing values." (Allen 2014 p 108). Allen offers a seven concept model based on the work of D. L. Jones (Jones 2009). As it was worded specifically in reference to pastoral counseling, I will modify the wording slightly so as to apply to a broader range of professions.

1. Perceptiveness - Trusting One's Own Intuition
2. Compassion - Caring for the person
3. Initiative - Reaching Out to the Hurting Person
4. Clinical Clarification - Asking Great Questions [I have found that a direct problem solving approach may be most beneficial for therians, and I will address that below.]
5. Engaging the Will - Helping People Tap Their Inner Resources
6. Embracing Action - Helping People Get Unstuck (from a crisis from which the client can see no way out)
7. Encouraging Connectedness

The third point is practitioner-client equality. That should come to no surprise to a student of psychotherapy as arrogance and patronization of the professional and subjection and dependence of the client is known to be virulent to a therapeutic relationship.

Roxburgh and Evenden (Roxburgh & Evenden, 2016a, p 219) expresses the need for "more culturally competent counsellors who can draw upon a holistic approach when working with clients from diverse backgrounds," and, therefore, the need for training in the areas of cultural sensitivity and, specifically, in dealing with anomalous experiences, such as therianthropy.

Roxburgh and Evenden, in their second study (Roxburgh & Evenden, 2016b), also underscored the need for training in dealing with AEs. The theme of "forewarned and forearmed" was common in the interviews with therapists. They found that counselors should expect clients who had experienced AEs to "test the waters" to see if the professionals would take them seriously. The clients seemed to want to discuss their unusual experiences but held back for fear of being ridiculed or having their experiences dismissed as unimportant.

Since the therapists were beginning at a point where both the therapist and the client were poorly equipped to understand what was happening, the approach should be one of exploration and not explanation. Even explaining what was known about the phenomenon might be the wrong approach because what was relevant was what the experience means specifically to the client.

As in the first study cited above, Roxburgh and Evenden found it important to normalize the experience. Yes, it is special, but other people also report having the experience so that it is not outside the realm of sanity. And it is important that the counselor emphasize that it is safe for the client to share their experiences.

The researchers also made some suggestions for needs for further research, such as whether different AEs create different barriers to seeking counseling. They suggest that professionals might need to question clients about possible AEs in the assessment phase of the process, since clients are hesitant to share anomalous experiences.

The Theta - Therianthropy Education and Therapeutic Alliance website suggests that therapists educate themselves about the identity phenomenon associated with therianthropy if they encounter it in a case. They provided some information in the form of a pdf. The "For Therapists Page" is extant in the Internet Archives Wayback Machine and is referenced in the bibliography.

Reviews of clinical lycanthropy cases suggest that practitioners should take care to distinguish between presenting complaints of clients and their therianthropy.

By my own observations:

Therianthropy is not a disorder. There are too many successful therians around to posit that, although it does seem evident that therians have a predisposition to certain disorders, such as autoimmune disorders, depression, and, perhaps, color blindness.

Therians tend to have anomalous reactions to otherwise reliable prescription drugs, such as allergies, sensitivities, insensitivities, and paradoxical reactions. Doctors should expect unexpected consequences to therapy. Especially, therians that show strong autoimmune reactions often have adverse effects to vaccines.

Therians may not be strongly motivated to pursue their own defense. They may need urging to act in their own best interest.

Often, therapeutic practices are transparent to therians who perceive them as "games" with ulterior motives. Therefore, more oblique approaches to personal problems may be met with resistance or downright sabotage. Straightforward, cooperative problem-solving strategies may be more productive when counseling therians.

It is also important to remember that there are similar phenomenon that may occur, such as the broader experience of being other then human that defines the otherkin community.

Conclusions for clients

The IARP study suggests that furries, and therians in particular may benefit from training about how to deal effectively with normative situations.

The client should own their own decisions. A good professional-client relationship is characterized by equality and, although the professional may be instrumental in helping the client find plausible solutions to their problems, the decisions should be theirs and, once the decisions are made, the client should take responsibility for the outcomes. Especially, if things do not work out as expected, they should be willing to "return to the drawing board" and determine what modifications should be made - in other words, they should be ready to take an active part in their own solutions.

The implications in the Roxburgh-Evenden studies for clients raise the concern that therapeutic experiences may not be accessible to clients with anomalous experiences. In the first place, they may not even seek out counseling for fear that their experiences will be dismissed or, worse, that their experiences may be dismissed as pathological. If they decide to seek counseling anyway and find that the counselor is unwilling or unable to explore the AEs, they may termiinate the therapeutic relationship and be more resistant to look for a more acceptable relationship in the future. Finally, the client will be unable to experience the benefits of therapy. Of course, the solution, from the client's side is to "shop around" and find a professional who has undergone training and is willing to recognize the anomalous experiences as relevant to the professional relationship.

The Theta website provides a "cheat sheet" "for people going into therapy who want to discuss their identity with their therapist, as part of counseling or psychological help related to or unrelated to their identity." The primary suggestion here is that a client should educate themselves so that they are able to carry on an informed discussion with their therapist (or, by extension, any professional working with them.)

Recommendations for training

In the Roxburgh-Evenden studies, the therapists typically stated that they would handle AEs in the same manner as other personal issues in the client's case, but they felt that training would be useful. The researchers' conclusion was that the therapists felt that it would be useful to be exposed in training to the variety of AEs they might encounter.

I recommend that therapists and other practitioners should be exposed to case histories of both dysfunctional and eufunctional therians so as to understand that therianthropy itself is not a disorder and to progress toward an understanding of what can go wrong in a therian's life and why some therians are not impeded by their "anomalous experience" of being nonhuman. The latter could provide invaluable information to inform the former.

Caveat: I'm a Were, and researchers tends to forget that "If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail". Therianthropology is still a young field of study and there is still a considerable amount of error in the study papers. We need more research.

Bibliography
Allen, Troy D. (2014) Other-Than-Human: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry Into the Spiritual Development of Therians. Doctoral Dissertation. Argosy University, Phoenix Campus, College of Behavioral Sciences.

Douglas, Adam (1992). The Beast Within. Avon Books: New York

Jones, D. L. (2009). "A pastoral model for caring for persons with diminished hope". Pastoral Psychology. 58(5-6), 641-654.

Noll, Richard. (1992) Vampires, Werewolves, and Demons. Brunner/Mazel, Inc.: New York, NY

ParaX Radio (10/18/2009) "Therianthropy". KAPS Radio 

Roberts, S. E., Plante, C., Gerbasi, K., & Reysen, S. (2015). Clinical interaction with anthropomorphic phenomenon: Notes for health professionals about interacting with clients who possess this unusual identity. Health & Social Work, 40(2), e42-e50

Roxburgh, Elizabeth C. and Rachel E. Evenden (2016a) "'Most people think you're a fruit loop': Clients' experiences of seeking support for anomalous experiences" Counseling and Psychotherapy Research, September 2016; 16(3): 211-221. British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy.

Roxburgh, Elizabeth C. and Rachel E. Evenden (2016b) "''They daren't tell people': therapists' experiences of working with clients who report anomalous experiences" European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counseling, 18:2, 123-141.

Senn, Harry A. (1982). Werewolves and Vampires in Romania. East European Monographs, No. XCIC. East European Quarterly.

Theta - Therianthropy Education and Therapeutic Alliance (accessed 9/28/17) home page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150304081058/http://theta.kinfire.org) 

the Research Page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150304111535/http://theta.kinfire.org/?page_id=13) 

the For Therapists Page (https://web.archive.org/web/20150304111301/http://theta.kinfire.org/?page_id=11) 

VanZandt, Wolf. The Therian Timeline (accessed 12/3/17) Home page (http://www.theriantimeline.com/home)

Weird, True, and Freaky: Humanimals (2008) Animal Planet Video. Accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oG2_1ixHuk, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Mmlfi72xg, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0RzanU41RE. 3/28/13.

The documents on this page are intended as tools for professionals and the therian clients of professionals. Feel free to print, copy, link, or otherwisee disseminate this information.