Therapy Pets: How to Ask Your Doctor for ESA Letters

Getting an emotional support animal can help you deal with depression, anxiety, and stress. There are many misconceptions about the process of registering for an ESA and benefits of having ESA animals.

Why Do You Need an ESA Letter?

In order to get emotional support animal letters , you need to speak with a licensed doctor or mental health professional. If you get your letter from an unlicensed person, you might as well burn it because housing facilities and airlines will not accept it. If you experience difficulty carrying out your daily activities, an ESA can provide you with love and companionship that will help you sail through the day.

When you get a legit ESA letter, you can live in houses that do not allow pets and fly with your pet in the cabin without paying more. This is all great but the number of sites that offer fake ESA letters has increased over the years. For this reason, you should be careful to avoid scams.

Elements of a Genuine ESA Letter

Your ESA letter should have the following:

–          Description of how an ESA animal will help in the treatment of your condition

–          Licensed professional’s signature and letterhead

–          Your name and the details of your pet

–          Licensed professional’s license type, number, its date of issuance, as well as the state in which the license was issued.

–          An assessment of your ability to care for the animal

–          Acknowledgment that a licensed doctor has assessed you for a mental condition

–          Confirmation that your mental condition has significant effects on your daily activities and that an ESA can help you.

Asking Your Doctor for an ESA

Only a licensed professional can give you a valid ESA. If you are currently in therapy, you should consider asking your therapist to give you an ESA letter. It will be up to your doctor to decide whether an ESA will give you the assistance that you need. If your therapist decides that you need an ESA, you will get it with minimum hassle.

On the other hand, if you are not currently in therapy, you should start seeing a mental health professional immediately. To get counselling from professional, licensed, and vetted counselors that you can trust BetterHelp. If your doctor decides that you might benefit from an ESA, you will get your letter in no time. However, you should know that most doctors are not in a hurry to issue ESA letters for the following reasons:

–          They do not believe that ESAs can help in treating a mental disorder

–          They believe that some people want ESA letters as a free airplane pass for their pets

If you are thinking about asking your therapist for an ESA letter in person, you should know about some pros and cons. The main advantage is that you will receive a valid letter and the biggest con is that the process is time consuming and expensive.

Getting an ESA Online

Even when looking for an ESA letter online, you need to keep in mind that only a licensed mental health professional can give you one. Moreover, some sites provide fake ESA letters and provide links to ESA registries – there is no official ESA registry. How can you recognize a fake site? Any website that does not offer to connect you to a licensed professional is fake.

You have to answer some questions a reliable site will forward your answers to a mental health professional.

A legitimate ESA letter is not easy to get but you need to ensure that you get one. If you go through websites, make sure that you find reliable ones.

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