ABSTRACT

One of the most often encountered questions from fellow therapists and graduate-level students during conversations about animal-assisted therapy is, “What do you do with the dog during the session?” It is a common misperception that animal-assisted therapy is somehow a separate form of therapy; that the standard theoretical frameworks and ways of working with clients suddenly no longer apply the moment a dog enters the therapy room. The use of a therapy dog has come to hold some form of mystery, and I have witnessed excellent therapists suddenly set their skills aside when working with a therapy dog. These otherwise well-trained therapists well intentionally defer to the therapy dog to lead the session, which results in no more than a animal-assisted visit with the client. While I am sure the client benefited from the physiological effects of interacting with the animal, the client did not receive the full potential of an animal-assisted therapy session.