Animal-Assisted Therapy: Best Practices for College Counseling

The growing prevalence of mental health concerns among college students, combined with a reduction in college counseling center resources, has generated a need for innovative service delivery approaches to assist students. One such approach is the inclusion of animal-assisted therapy in counseling services and campus outreach programming. This manuscript first offers an overview of the history of animal-assisted therapy and provides a review of empirical studies supporting the use of animals in counseling services. Following, the efforts of one university counseling center to integrate animals into the service-delivery model are described. This paper concludes with resources for more information regarding animal-assisted therapy and considerations for college counseling center staff.