animal assisted therapist
Snapshot
Do you love animals and want to make a real difference in people's lives? As an animal assisted therapist, you’ll combine your passion for both to help individuals overcome challenges and improve their well-being through the power of animal interaction.
Animal assisted therapists work with individuals experiencing cognitive, motoric, or social-emotional difficulties. Your daily tasks involve carefully planned interventions using animals, often domesticated pets, to support patients' recovery and overall well-being. This requires a deep understanding of therapeutic techniques, animal behaviour, and the specific needs of each client. You’ll collaborate with other healthcare professionals and ensure the safety and welfare of both the patients and the animals involved.
- • Developing and implementing individualized animal assisted intervention plans.
- • Facilitating therapeutic sessions involving animals, monitoring patient responses and adjusting approaches as needed.
- • Assessing patient progress and documenting outcomes.
Where this occupation is in demand
Reported labour shortages and surpluses, by year. Published for occupation groups, not for individual job titles.
Deeper colour: reported the same way in more consecutive years.
Figures cover Health professionals — 68 jobs including this one.
In shortage: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia and 6 more.
Longest-running shortage: Belgium, 3 years.
Select a place on the map to see its figures.
About this source›
Source: ELA/EURES labour shortages and surpluses. Readings are published at occupation-group level, and cover Europe. Editions differ in annex layout and country coverage, so a change between years does not always mean the labour market changed. Countries in grey were not reported, which is not the same as being in balance.
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Future Outlook for animal assisted therapist
The outlook for animal assisted therapist is exceptionally stable. While AI tools will assist with daily tasks, the core of this role relies on human judgment, resulting in a high resilience score of 72%.
How are these scores calculated?
The Resilience Score (0–100) estimates how structurally protected this occupation is from automation and AI disruption, based on task-level analysis. Higher scores mean more human-judgment-intensive tasks. AI Exposure shows the estimated percentage of task hours that current AI capabilities could affect. These are model-derived structural indicators, not predictions about individual job security.
How could animal assisted therapist change as AI adoption grows?
Human judgement, trust, and context remain strong protectors for this role.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How could animal assisted therapist change as AI adoption grows?
Human judgement, trust, and context remain strong protectors for this role.
Illustrative scenario based on task automatability — not a forecast. Values are rounded the further ahead you look.
How AI may change this role
Deterministic, model-based interpretation of current role signals — not a guarantee of replacement.
What still depends on people
- maintain healthcare user data confidentiality
- provide health education
- develop a collaborative therapeutic relationship
Where AI may become a co-pilot
- assess the patient's therapeutic needs
- select therapy animals
- instruct animals for therapy purposes
Tasks most exposed to automation
No single task here is highly automatable yet.
Vital Signs & AI Vectors
AI Exposure Vectors
0-100%Exposure to content generation, creative augmentation, and large language model tools
Exposure to physical automation, robotics, and sensor-driven task displacement
Exposure to AI-assisted analysis, pattern recognition, and predictive modelling tasks
Exposure to workflow automation, decision-support software, and process digitisation
Technical Details
NexFuture v3.0 estimates automation exposure natively from ESCO essential-skill groups, weighted by skill mass and calibrated against expert anchors. Scores are probabilistic estimates, not guarantees. See the NexFuture Methodology White Paper for full details.
Measures automation exposure. It does not measure pay, demand, or how many jobs exist near you.
What people in this role usually do
Healthcare & Human Services
A typical day as a animal assisted therapist
09 09:00 · Morning assess the patient's therapeutic needs
10 10:30 · Mid-morning instruct animals for therapy purposes
12 12:00 · Midday recruit animal handlers
14 14:00 · Afternoon maintain healthcare user data confidentiality
15 15:30 · Late afternoon select therapy animals
17 17:00 · Wrap-up develop a collaborative therapeutic relationship
Task order is illustrative. Individual days vary.
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animal therapy
The involvement of animals in a treatment in order to improve the social, emotional or cognitive functioning of the patient.
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animal behaviour
The natural behavioural patterns of animals, i.e. how normal and abnormal behaviour might be expressed according to species, environment, human-animal interaction and occupation.
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behavioural therapy
The characteristics and foundations of behavioural therapy, which focuses on changing patients` unwanted or negative behaviour. It involves studying the present behaviour and the means by which this can be un-learned.
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evaluation of psychological performance
The characteristics of the methods used to assess psychological parameters.
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human psychological development
The human psychological development across the lifespan, theories of personality development, cultural and environmental influences, human behavior, including developmental crises, disability, exceptional behavior, and addictive behavior.
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palliative care
The methods of pain relief and quality of life improvement for the patients with serious illnesses.
- assistive instruments
- sociology
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maintain healthcare user data confidentiality
Comply with and maintain the confidentiality of healthcare users` illness and treatment information.
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provide health education
Provide evidence based strategies to promote healthy living, disease prevention and management.
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select therapy animals
Identify the right animal with the right temperament appropriate for the therapy.
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instruct animals for therapy purposes
Control animals in order to provide therapeutic treatments for psychologically or medically ill patients.
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recruit animal handlers
Select and instruct animal trainers in order to integrate the animals in the therapy.
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listen actively
Give attention to what other people say, patiently understand points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times; able to listen carefully the needs of customers, clients, passengers, service users or others, and provide solutions accordingly.
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assess the patient's therapeutic needs
Observe and assess the patient`s behaviour, attitudes and emotions in order to understand if and how their therapeutic needs can be met with a specific kind of therapy, collecting and analysing information on how the client makes, responds to, and relates to artistic stimulae. Relate this information to other aspects of the patient`s life.
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interact with healthcare users
Communicate with clients and their carer’s, with the patient’s permission, to keep them informed about the clients’ and patients’ progress and safeguarding confidentiality.
Skill DNA
Work personality traits and values that define this role
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Where does animal assisted therapist fit?
Similarity scores based on skill overlap from ESCO data.
Frequently asked questions
- What kind of animals are typically used in animal assisted therapy?
- While dogs are most common, animal assisted therapy can involve a variety of animals including cats, horses, rabbits, and even birds, depending on the patient’s needs and the therapist’s expertise. The animal’s temperament and suitability for therapeutic interaction are carefully assessed.
- What skills or qualities are important for success as an animal assisted therapist?
- Beyond a passion for animals, successful therapists demonstrate strong communication and interpersonal skills, empathy, patience, and the ability to adapt to changing situations. Understanding of animal behaviour and training techniques is also crucial, as is the ability to work collaboratively within a healthcare team.
- Is it common to work in private practice as an animal assisted therapist?
- While this occupation is primarily employee-based, working in private practice is also a common option. Many animal assisted therapists establish their own practices, offering services directly to clients or collaborating with various healthcare facilities.
- Animal Assisted Therapist — is there a shortage in Europe?
- Yes. In the 2025 ELA/EURES edition, a shortage was reported in 10 of the 11 European countries that assessed this occupation group: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany and 6 more. Belgium has reported one for 3 consecutive years. These assessments are published per occupation group rather than per job title.
- Animal Assisted Therapist — what does it pay in the United States?
- $68,340 a year at the median, as of 2025-05. State medians run from $53,530 to $82,010. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a United States figure and not a projection for Europe.