CSAW Faculty and Team

Dr. Phyllis Erdman

Phyllis Erdman, PhD is a professor in the Counseling Psychology program and Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education at Washington State University (WSU). Dr. Erdman has conducted research in parent/child relationships and human-animal interaction (HAI), specifically looking at the effectiveness of equine facilitated activities. She is past chair of the Section on Human-Animal Interaction, Society of Counseling Psychology, American Psychological Association. She served as a consultant on a $ 100,000 NIH Grant in 2010-2012 to measure the impact of an equine facilitated program on children's stress levels and social competence development.

She also completed studies on the impact of equine programs on social skills development for children on the autism spectrum. She worked with the PATH Therapeutic Riding Program at WSU and provided programs in equine activities directed with youth, parent-child teams, and Veterans. She also works closely with colleagues in the College of Veterinary Medicine at WSU, particularly focused on pet loss/grief and infusing the human-animal bond into Veterinary practice. She has created an online non-credit course at WSU entitled: Human-Animal Interaction: What We Know and What We Don't Know. Her goal is to promote the field of human-interaction within a multidisciplinary framework.

Dr. Erdman's Full Biography: https://education.wsu.edu/perdman/