Animal Assisted Therapy Interventions in Supervision: Building Alliances and Prompting Discussions

A key task in supervision is to establish a strong working alliance (Bordin, 1983). As the supervisory relationship contains many parallels to the counseling relationship (Bernard & Goodyear, 2009), counseling interventions that enhance working alliances may extend to supervision. One such intervention is animal assisted therapy in counseling (AAT-C). Including AAT-C in supervision may help the supervisor build a strong working alliance with the supervisee and enhance the process of supervision in ways that would not be possible without the inclusion of a therapy animal. The authors present several case studies that illustrate ways that AAT-C interventions impacted supervision.