Advancing the Practice of Animal-Assisted Counseling Through Measurable Standards

ABSTRACT

As the practice of animal-assisted counseling (AAC) flourishes, the need for measurable standards increases. The purpose of this study was to identify standards in AAC as a means to recommend measurable criteria for an AAC credentialing process. Thirty-eight educators, researchers, program directors, practitioners, and students who have training and experience in AAC participated in this study using a researcher-developed survey instrument. Participants identified prerequisites for practitioners, knowledge content areas, informed consent topics, and clinical experience skills that were most important for AAC sessions. Outcomes also identified that practitioners interested in pursuing AAC as a specialization area should complete an average of 117 training hours, 22 live supervised experience hours, and 141 post-training supervised experience hours. The findings from this study recommend a pathway to credentialing in AAC.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal-assisted counseling
• standards
• credentialing
• human-animal interactions
• creativity in counseling