Ethics as a Psychotherapy Intervention –

A Mechanism Unique to
Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy (AAP)
Nancy Parish-Plass
“Ahava” Emergency Shelter for At-Risk Children, Kfar Bialik, Israel;
School of Social Work, Haifa University, Israel
email: nancyaat@gmail.com

AAP's ethics code is an especially complex

one. The therapist must exhibit ethical Unique to AAP is that not only is ethical
behavior simultaneously towards the client, behavior of the therapist an obligation, but
the animal, and what happens between them. it also serves as an intervention expanding
the classic principles of psychotherapy and
Psychotherapist
thus enriching and furthering the
psychotherapy process.
Client Animal

INTERVENTION EFFECT ON THE

THERAPY PROCESS
1. The therapist’s ethical behavior towards the The development of the therapeutic alliance
animal creates the sense that the therapist can
be trusted.
Behavioral and cognitive change:
2. Client identification with animals receiving “I deserve to be treated ethically.”
ethical treatment
Development of reflective functioning*
3. Recognizing and verbalizing the animal's
feelings, desires, needs
Mutuality and recognition of the existence
4. Recognizing that within human-animal of an "other“ in an interpersonal world
interactions, both human and animal are a
separate individuals with their own perspectives;
that interactions depend on mutual recognition
Helps the client navigate the
5. Moving back and forth between potential space between his/her inner world
anthropomorphizing (for the sake of projection), and outer reality
or not (when there is a need to recognize reality
for the animal’s welfare), in service of the
psychotherapy process
May help client understand how (s)he was
6. De-objectification of animals in work with objectified
clients who have been objectified (as in the case
of sexual abuse)
These clashes may represent experiences in
7. Recognition and discussion of the clash of object relations from the past or present,
needs between client and animal particularly as may be relevant in parent-
child therapy.*

Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy injects ethics-related concerns into the here and now of the
therapy setting, where the above interventions may lead to increased psychological and
social functioning and to working through related issues and processes, at a safe
psychological distance, leading to insight and change.

*Shani-Kassif, L. (2016). Animal-assisted dyadic therapy: A therapy model promoting development of the reflective function in the parent-child bond. Clinical
Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Accepted for publication.