Cultural Diversity Considerations in Animal Assisted Counseling

Animal assisted counseling (AAC) has become a more common practice and yet little attention has been paid to cultural diversity considerations with this modality. The purpose of this article is to increase clinicians’ awareness of the cultural differences related to animals within different cultural groups in order to promote culturally sensitive practice of AAC. To increase awareness of cultural diversity issues, the literature describing human-animal interactions within the context of majority and minority cultures, such as racial and ethnic groups, religion, socioeconomic class, and gender, is reviewed. The role of the human- animal relationship and the nature of the counseling process for each of the cultural groups is discussed. Specific implications for counseling with diverse clients based on each group’s unique needs are highlighted. These implications include programmatic considerations, cultural sensitivity, and counselor self- awareness. By being culturally aware, practitioners can more effectively and ethically utilize AAC with a variety of clients.