8 Benefits of Animal-Assisted Therapy

Studies of the benefits of animal-assisted therapy point to lower anxiety, quicker trust between client and therapist, steadier mood, and longer stays in addiction treatment. 

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a planned, goal-directed form of therapy in which a trained animal joins sessions led by a licensed professional. Dogs and horses are the animals most programs use, and in addiction treatment the clearest findings concern how readily clients open up to a counsellor and how long they stay in care.

Key Takeaways

• Controlled studies link therapy animals to lower anxiety and a stronger working bond with the therapist.
• At one Norwegian hospital, young adults who joined horse sessions stayed in addiction treatment about twice as long, though a later randomized trial could not confirm the effect.
• Most trials are small, and many enrolled older adults, hospital patients or veterans.
• AAT is used as an addition to counselling and established therapy.
• Canada's national standard for animal-assisted services is voluntary, so clients need to check a provider's training themselves.

What Is Animal-Assisted Therapy?

Animal-assisted therapy is a structured intervention in which a psychologist, social worker, counsellor or occupational therapist includes a trained animal to reach treatment goals that are set beforehand and recorded in the clinical file, according to the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) ². 

The same practice also goes by the name pet therapy, so articles on the benefits of pet therapy generally describe this kind of session. A service animal is trained to perform tasks for one person with a disability and has public access rights, which therapy animals do not have ². An emotional support animal is a person's own companion at home, with no clinician and no session goals. 

Our earlier article on animal-assisted addiction therapy covers the definition in more detail.

8 Benefits of Animal-Assisted Therapy

A trained animal in the room lets a client pet it, talk about it and look after it during a hard session. Most of the animal therapy benefits researchers have measured connect to those three kinds of contact, from a calmer body and an easier first conversation with a counsellor to less loneliness and more days spent in treatment.

1. Lower anxiety and stress

Therapy animals appear to ease anxiety during treatment, and a Canadian trial offers one of the clearest recent examples. Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan gave 97 emergency department patients a 10-minute visit from a therapy dog team and compared them with 101 patients who had no visit ³. Anxiety, pain and depression ratings fell in the dog group, and 48 percent of visited patients reported their anxiety dropping by more than half. Those patients were in hospital for pain, so the result says nothing directly about addiction care.

Anxiety deserves attention in addiction care. The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation links it to relapse, and the older studies it cites found that a therapy animal in the room lowered physical signs of anxiety during sessions ³. For a client whose drinking or drug use climbs with anxiety, the benefits of sitting beside a calm therapy dog add to the mental health supports that treat both conditions together.

2. Faster trust and more openness in session

A therapy animal can help a new client trust the counsellor sooner, and Hazelden notes that the working bond between client and therapist affects who completes addiction treatment ¹. 

In a study of group treatment for substance dependence, Wesley, Minatrea and Watson asked participants to rate the therapeutic alliance after each session, and the 135 people in groups with a therapy dog rated it higher than the 96 in groups without one ⁴.

The result describes how clients rated the relationship during treatment, which is a different outcome from staying sober afterward. Hazelden adds that patients tend to trust a therapy animal before the therapist, and the therapist gains trust through the animal. Questions about the dog's name and age give an anxious client an easy first topic.

3. Better mood and fewer depressive symptoms

Some studies tie animal-assisted therapy to fewer depressive symptoms, though every trial so far has been small. 

In Italy, Contalbrigo and colleagues followed 22 men with drug addiction in a reduced-security prison program, and the 12 who joined weekly one-hour dog sessions over six months showed a larger drop in depression scores than the controls ⁵. The groups were not randomized, nobody was followed up afterward, and the differences did not hold up under a stricter statistical correction.

A second trial enrolled 54 nursing home residents with dementia, none of them in addiction treatment. Depression scores rose over 10 weeks with usual care alone and held steady in the group that added weekly dog sessions, though neither group improved ⁶. A session aimed at mood might pair a short walk with the dog with a check-in on how the client feels before and after.

4. Less loneliness and more social connection

Loneliness scores fell in at least one controlled study, which makes this one of the better-tested social benefits of therapy animals. 

Banks and Banks assigned 45 residents of long-term care facilities to no visits or to 30-minute dog sessions once or three times a week for six weeks, and both visit schedules lowered loneliness compared with no visits ⁷. Most participants were widowed women older than 75, so the finding applies to addiction care only by extension. 

Group members who barely speak to one another may start by talking about the dog, which gives a counsellor a low-pressure opening.

5. Comfort after trauma

Studies of people living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggest that horse and dog sessions may ease trauma symptoms, and animal-assisted therapy for PTSD now has its own body of trials. 

A 2021 meta-analysis by Hediger and colleagues reviewed 41 studies with 1,111 participants and found that animal-assisted interventions outperformed waitlist conditions and matched standard PTSD psychotherapy, with a small edge that fell short of statistical reliability ⁸. 

The authors rated none of the studies as good quality, and most of them involved veterans or survivors of abuse. A session might involve grooming a horse as the therapist helps the client notice and name what they feel in their body.

6. Stronger engagement with treatment

Horse sessions have been linked to longer stays in addiction treatment, one of the better-documented benefits of equine therapy. 

At Oslo University Hospital, Kern-Godal and colleagues reviewed records for 108 young adults in substance use treatment and found that those who took part in horse-assisted therapy had a higher completion rate (56.9 percent against 14 percent) and stayed an average of 141 days, against 70 days for patients without horse sessions ⁹. The authors state that the design shows an association and cannot prove cause.

A randomized trial at the same department later followed 50 residential patients. Completion reached 44 percent with horse sessions and 32 percent without, a gap too small to count as a reliable effect in a sample that size ¹⁰.

7. Safe, patient-led physical comfort

A therapy animal gives people a form of physical comfort they control themselves. Therapists generally avoid touching clients because contact can be read as inappropriate, and counselling author Cynthia Chandler describes petting or hugging a therapy animal as patient-initiated contact that offers comfort without that risk, as summarized by Hazelden ¹. 

The idea comes from a counselling handbook and clinical experience, and no trial has tested it on its own. A client who becomes upset describing a relapse can reach for the dog without asking anyone.

8. More movement and motivation in rehabilitation

Working with a dog has been linked to better walking and motor skills in physical rehabilitation. A 2024 scoping review by O'Loughlin and colleagues examined 22 studies of animal-assisted interventions in adult hospital rehabilitation and found that structured therapy sessions reported gains in walking, motor skills and verbal communication ¹¹. 

The review mapped existing studies without pooling their results, and none of them focused on addiction.

What the Research Does and Does Not Show

Overall, the animal-assisted therapy research supports a modest conclusion, which is that therapy animals can make treatment easier to begin and to stay in when they join established care. Hazelden describes AAT as a technique used alongside an evidence-based practice to strengthen its effect ¹. The CCPA guidelines call it an adjunct therapy and not a stand-alone intervention ².

Most studies in this field are small, several are more than a decade old, and many enrolled older adults, hospital patients, veterans or men in prison programs. The only randomized trial of horse sessions in residential addiction care did not confirm the retention effect seen earlier ¹⁰. The CCPA also notes that the practice has grown faster than the research on it.

For a person in recovery, the core of care stays the same, with counselling and psychotherapy for addiction recovery at the centre, and a therapy animal can support that work without replacing any part of it.

Who May Not Benefit From Animal-Assisted Therapy? 

AAT suits people who feel at ease around animals and can keep the animal safe. Hazelden advises against it for a patient who fears or is allergic to the animal, or who shows aggression that could endanger it ¹. The CCPA guidelines ask practitioners to check at intake for allergies, phobias, any history of animal abuse and animal-related trauma ².

Attitudes toward animals also differ across cultures and faiths, and the same guidelines ask counsellors to respect a client's discomfort with an animal in the room. Signs worth raising with a care team include asthma or hives around fur, a past bite, strong unease around large animals, and religious or cultural objections.

Finding Animal-Assisted Therapy in Canada

Canada's national standard for this work, CAN/HRSO-500.01-2022, Development of a Management System for Animal-Assisted Human Services, was released in 2022 through the Human Research Standards Organization (HRSO) ². The standard is voluntary, so there are no regulated standards for AAT practice, and the CCPA places responsibility for competence on each organization and counsellor.

Before booking, ask the practitioner which regulated profession they belong to, what AAT training and certification they hold, who screened and certified the animal, what liability insurance covers their sessions, and if they provide a written consent form and scope of practice. Residential programs that do not offer AAT may still include wellness and recreation programming such as yoga and meditation.

Where Therapy Animals Fit in Recovery

The benefits of animal therapy count most in addiction care when they help a person speak honestly in session and stay in treatment long enough for counselling to work. Inside an inpatient rehab program, counselling remains the main treatment, and supporting options such as music therapy for addiction serve the same goal of keeping people engaged. The next step for researchers is a set of larger randomized trials that can show which clients gain the most from sessions with animals.

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