Sarah Gracia, thank you for taking the time to look at my work! You ask great question, because this area is so new there is a lot of research that needs to happen to be better equipped to service people’s needs for service animals especially emotional support animals. A great way to start is by understanding what each tier of service animal is meant to do and what the real benefits are for each individual along with understanding that some animals are better equipped for this work than others. With that said, there are a lot of organizations in place to help pair up service animals with individuals in need, but the fees can be heavy and depending on the need, such as a seeing eye dog, the process can take weeks. One site to look at for how this works is seeingeye.org.
When it comes to emotional support animals, research needs to be done both by the clinician and the client to determine how the animal will fit into therapy, the breeds that are best suited for this, how to go about basic training, and the responsibilities that come with having an animal. Finding an emotional support animal can be as easy as adopting a dog or cat at the local shelter as their level of training is less stringent than that of a service animal, but it’s how the animal responds to you and how they help that takes time and again not all breeds are suited for this.
To give a personal example, my current emotional support dog started as a pet and quickly became more as he was highly sensitive to my moods and emotions and would go beyond that of a normal pet to make sure I am ok. These are not skills that I taught him, but rather ones he comes by naturally. However, upon investigation into his breed they are highly sensitive to their owners emotions and moods. Had he been a different breed this may not have been the case. I hope this answered your question.