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Trachsel, Manuel; Gaab, Jens; Biller-Andorno, Nikola; Tekin, Şerife; Sadler, John Z.
Book title
The Oxford Handbook of Psychotherapy Ethics
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Place of publication
Oxford
Pages
904-916
ISSN/ISBN
978-0-19-881733-8 ; 978-0-19-185885-7
Series title
Oxford handbooks in philosophy and psychiatry
Keywords
animal-assisted psychotherapy, human–animal relationship, One Health, animal ethics, relationalism
Abstract
Animal-assisted psychotherapy is increasingly popular and attracts considerable attention in science. Integrating animals into therapy aims at generating added value in health and well-being of humans as well as non-human animals. This approach is reflected in the One Health perspective. However, animal-assisted psychotherapy raises issues regarding the ethical standards in the therapy setting in general and ethical reflections about our responsibilities towards therapy animals in particular. According to a dominant account in animal ethics, our moral obligations are based on welfare concerns. But this approach can be supplemented by a contextual view that highlights the moral relevance of particular relationships in animal-assisted psychotherapy. Therapy animals place moral duties on the therapist that go beyond welfare considerations and can be based on relation-based reasoning in the therapeutic context.
