Introduction <br >People Always Ask Me，<br >"What is a Cat Therapist?"<br >I AM REPEATEDLY ASKED， "What is a cat therapist?"， "What do<br >you do?" and "How did you become one?" My answer is that<br >I help people understand their cats day-to-day needs， so that<br >person and cat can relate in a way that promotes the emotional<br >and physical health of both. But many of my cases involve cats<br >who have already developed emotional problems which have<br >precipitated behavioral disorders. Subsequently， emotional<br >problems often trigger medical problems. That s why 1 feel it is<br >imperative to treat the "total cat."<br > Because the in-depth understanding of human behavior has<br >only been manifested since Freud s work at the end of the last<br > century， it isn t astounding that as recently as 1977 I was<br > referred to as "the country s founding mother of a cat psy-<br > choanalysis."<br > "The bedrock of the practice of psychiatry is the belief that<br > people have inner lives， that their symptoms are manifestations<br > of stress and that a therapist has access to understanding by<br > training and empathy. Problems are eased or cured by provid-<br > ing an atmosphere in which stress is lessened， so the patient can<br > have the opportunity to learn new coping mechanisms. Some-<br > times medication is prescribed for relief of symptoms while the<br > patient tries out new behaviors. Carole Wilbourn， a therapist，<br >