Retired Long Island nurse, health teacher uses ancient technique to calm anxious animals: ‘Just like people’

They’re all bow-wowed by her.

A Long Island woman has dedicated her retirement to easing hundreds of anxious animals with an ancient Japanese calming technique she first mastered on people.

“I believe in all that stuff for humans. So I thought, why can’t it work on animals, right?” Susan Denis, 70, of Sag Harbor told The Post.

Denis, a former ICU nurse and later health teacher at Sag Harbor’s Pierson High School, administers the gentle, touching art of Jin Shin Jyutsu to four and sometimes two-legged friends. It is a series of stress-reducing hand placements which originated in the 19th century that apply less pressure than a massage.

“Energy runs through our bodies — and sometimes it can become locked away. By doing different holds or touches, we can open up the energy and have it flow freer when we become stressed,” she said of the method.

“I’ve worked on all sorts for this: goats, chickens, horses, turkeys, pigs, sheep, cows, cats and dogs. They all respond the same way, and just like people.”

Denis became certified to practice Jin Shin Jyutsu on humans in 1998 and earned the credentials to work on all creatures — great and small — in 2022, shortly after retiring from teaching. The proven results have even awed the animal healer at times, such as one moment at Tamerlaine Sanctuary in New Jersey, where she still helps out.

“I was working on this one goat, and all of a sudden, I looked up and saw several of them, all lined up as if they were saying, ‘Pick me! pick me!’” Denis recalled. “Animals are much closer to us than we think.”

Doggone amazing

Last year, after hearing of a particularly heartfelt case, Denis began volunteering twice a week at Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation to manage anxious rescues.

“We had this dog, Candy, come in from Ukraine, and Candy was very shut down,” said Dr. Teri Meekins, the shelter’s medical director.

“Susan came in and started working with her, and you could see a change in the same day,” Meekins added of the pup, who has since found a forever home.

On Friday, Denis interacted with a towering, 5-year-old pitbull nicknamed “Big Betty” — a gentle giant suffering from tremendous anxiety since being brought to the facility last August.

“It really does calm their nerves in a shelter environment,” Denis said while relaxing the suddenly silent dog who was rambunctious just a few minutes before.

“You can tell it’s working on both dogs and horses when they pass gas, which Betty is doing right now,” added the volunteer retiree with the worst seat in the house.

However, success requires more than just going through the motions. According to the meditative expert, to make a difference with animals, one must first utilize the tranquil effects of Jin Shin Jyustu on oneself.

“The important thing is that you calm yourself before you work with them because animals are so intuitive,” she said. “They can pick up on how we are feeling — it is really quite an amazing experience.”

In total, Denis has done Jin Shin Jyutsu on nearly 150 animals at the shelter, almost all of whom she said showed clear signs of lower stress and anxiety afterward.

“I can say that pretty much all of them have been adopted,” said Denis, who commended the shelter’s staff. “That’s the end goal of this after all.”