Do dolphins truly have the capacity to help people cope with serious psychiatric conditions like autism and depression?
For several years now, the dolphinarium in Rimini has welcomed autistic children and people with severe depression during set times and periods, under the supervision of trained staff.
The idea of having these individuals swim alongside dolphins emerged by chance fifteen years ago in the United States. It became clear from the start that these intelligent animals—playful, drawn to humans—brought something beneficial through their presence, their movements, their approach. They seemed to reach people trapped in isolation and tension.
This observation led to the development and expansion of the practice, and ongoing observations continue to bear out those initial impressions. But why? How does it work?
No one can yet explain precisely what happens between dolphins and people in distress. Yet the sense of relief, the feeling of well-being, the impression of being revitalized—these seem valuable enough to support therapies that are ordinarily difficult to pursue.
Maria went to Rimini to swim with the dolphins. At twenty-three, Maria is deeply withdrawn into her autism, and she seems constantly gripped by tension and fear, which often drive her to crying spells and self-harm.
It took Maria three days before she would enter the pool with the dolphins. She has been swimming for years, but this was new. Fear. Uncertainty. She needed time.
Finally, hand outstretched, eyes fixed forward—then diving in among those enormous animals, powerful yet gentle, graceful and playful. Maria entered the water with them and swam.
The sense of calm that lingered long after the swimming sessions suggests that the dolphins' presence opens small doors, helps her cross small (yet immense) obstacles.
Future experience and observation may, in time, explain what for now we can only guess at and glimpse.
- Nicole Schulthes, 1998