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Ethics as a Psychotherapy Intervention - A Mechanism Unique to Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy (AAP) PDF

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Nancy Parish-Plass at University of Haifa
Nancy Parish-Plass
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Abstract

Each type of therapy is accompanied by an accepted ethics code. AAP’s ethics code is an especially complex one considering that not only does the therapist have an obligation to act ethically towards the client, but also towards the animal. The therapist must do so simultaneously, while also taking into account the ethics involved in the interaction between the client and animal (as well as between animals). Unique to AAP is that not only is ethical behavior of the therapist an obligation, but it also serves as an intervention expanding the classic principles of psychotherapy and thus enriching and furthering the psychotherapy process. This presentation delineates a number of ways, some interrelated, in which the use of ethics inherent in AAP serves as a unique mechanism facilitating the reaching of psychotherapy goals.
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Ethics as a Psychotherapy Intervention –
A Mechanism Unique to
Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy (AAP)
Nancy Parish-Plass
“Ahava” Emergency Shelter for At-Risk Children, Kfar Bialik, Israel;
School of Social Work, Haifa University, Israel
email: nancyaat@gmail.com
EFFECT ON THE
THERAPY PROCESS
The development of the therapeutic
alliance
Behavioral and cognitive change:
“I deserve to be treated ethically.”
Development of reflective functioning*
Mutuality and recognition of the
existence of an "other“ in an
interpersonal world
Helps the client navigate the
potential space between his/her inner
world and outer reality
May help client understand how (s)he
was objectified
These clashes may represent
experiences in object relations from the
past or present, particularly as may be
relevant in parent-child therapy.*
Unique to AAP is that not only is ethical
behavior of the therapist an obligation,
but it also serves as an intervention
expanding the classic principles of
psychotherapy and thus enriching and
furthering the psychotherapy process.
AAP's ethics code is an especially
complex one. The therapist must exhibit
ethical behavior simultaneously towards
the client, the animal, and what happens
between them.
Psychotherapist
Client Animal
INTERVENTION
1. The therapist’s ethical behavior towards the
animal creates the sense that the therapist
can be trusted.
2. Client identification with animals receiving
ethical treatment
3. Recognizing and verbalizing the animal's
feelings, desires, needs
4. Recognizing that within human-animal
interactions, both human and animal are
separate individuals with their own
perspectives; that interactions depend on
mutual recognition
5. Moving back and forth between
anthropomorphizing (for the sake of
projection), or not (when there is a need to
recognize reality for the animal’s welfare),
in service of the psychotherapy process
6. De-objectification of animals in work with
clients who have been objectified (as in the
case of sexual abuse)
7. Recognition and discussion of the clash of
needs between client and animal
Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy injects ethics-related concerns into the here and
now of the therapy setting, where the above interventions may lead to increased
psychological and social functioning and to working through related issues and
processes, at a safe psychological distance, leading to insight and change.
*Shani, L. (2017). Animal-assisted dyadic therapy: A therapy model promoting development of the reflective function in the parent-child bond.
Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 22, 46-58.
... Sacrificing the animal's welfare "for the sake of the client's needs, reenactment and the therapy process," as is any unethical treatment toward the animal, will invariably be damaging to the client. It is actually the ethical treatment of the animal that advances that therapy process (Parish-Plass, 2016). ...
Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy for Developmental Trauma Through the Lens of Interpersonal Neurobiology of Trauma: Creating Connection With Self and Others
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2020
Psicoterapia asistida por animales para el trauma del desarrollo a través de la lente de la neurobiología interpersonal del trauma: Creando una conexión con uno mismo y con los demás Se ha descubierto que el maltrato crónico en la infancia tiene efectos nocivos gravessobre la salud médica y psicológica presente y futura del niño, la autorregulación ycapacidad para funcionar en las relaciones interpersonales, lo que resulta en un trauma del desarrollo (DT). En los últimos años, investigadores en el campo de la neurobiología han descubierto implicaciones neurológicas generalizadas del maltrato, que afectan negativamente el funcionamiento de el sistema neurológico, lo que aporta una mayor comprensión de los problemas emocionales y de comportamiento en quienes padecen DT. Integración del conocimiento de los efectos psicológicos del maltrato crónico con conocimiento de la neurobiología interpersonal de el trauma han demostrado ser útiles para los psicoterapeutas en el tratamiento de los sobrevivientes de maltrato. Sin embargo, los síntomas de la DT forman barreras para algunos de los principios de la psicoterapia que están destinados a tratar a quienes padecen DT. Este artículo presenta los antecedentes de la psicoterapia informada por el trauma y la neurobiología, centrándose en algunos síntomas de DT que pueden formar barreras a la psicoterapia, específicamente desconfianza en otros (que conduce a la dificultad para establecer la alianza terapéutica), entumecimiento emocional y pérdida de contacto con uno mismo (lo que lleva a la falta de expresión emocional, recuerdos implícitos sin el contexto de recuerdos explícitos, falta de reconocimiento del trauma y sus implicaciones), y la vergüenza y la presentacion posterior del yo falso ante los demás (impidiendo la capacidad de superar el trauma con el terapeuta). Expertos en el campo de la TD afirman que la terapia debe tener lugar en el contexto de las relaciones. La psicoterapia asistida por animales, realizada en un entorno altamente relacional, se discute como un enfoque que podría reducir estas barreras.
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