Skills
Select one or more knowledge areas or skills to find related occupations.
0 skills selected
Overview
Animal assisted therapists use planned interaction with suitable pets or domesticated animals to support people with cognitive, motor or social-emotional needs.
In job descriptions, look for therapy animals, intervention plans, patient needs assessment, animal handling, active listening, confidentiality, emergency care situations, animal handlers and recovery goals.
Explore this occupation
Search jobsWhat the work can involve
Animal assisted therapists plan sessions where a selected therapy animal supports recovery, learning or social-emotional goals. Work can include assessing therapeutic needs, coordinating animal handlers, protecting confidentiality and adjusting sessions when a patient or animal shows stress.
Skills and specializations
Useful depth includes therapy-animal selection, animal movement control, communication techniques, active listening, trauma awareness, patient data confidentiality and emergency care response. Some roles focus on children, rehabilitation, education or social participation.
Salary context
Pay context depends on the care setting, patient group, session responsibility, animal-handler coordination, documentation load and whether the role includes programme design, assessment or supervision.
Career paths
Development can move toward specialist animal assisted intervention, recreational therapy coordination, rehabilitation support, programme leadership, handler training or interdisciplinary care planning.
Good to know
Check whether adverts name client groups, therapy animals, assessment duties, animal welfare routines, handler roles, record keeping, emergency procedures and how outcomes are followed up.
Editorial note
This guide is editorial career context, not official labour-market statistics or role-specific pay data.
Map overview
Click the map to search for animal assisted therapist jobs.
— Jobs total — Countries with jobs
O*NET relationships
See occupations connected to this ESCO occupation in the official O*NET–ESCO mapping. The relationship type comes from the source and is not a ranking or recommendation.
O*NET relationships: 1
Therapists, All Other
29-1129.00
O*NET occupation is broader
The O*NET occupation covers a broader field of work than this ESCO occupation.
Open in O*NETSource and method
These relationships come from the official European Commission O*NET–ESCO crosswalk.
Relationship direction: O*NET occupation to ESCO occupation.
Several O*NET occupations can point to the same ESCO occupation, and one O*NET occupation can point to several ESCO occupations.
AltoTrail preserves the source relationship type. The order is technical and does not show which occupation is best, most relevant or recommended.
AltoTrail validates and presents the source relationships without adding ranking or recommendation semantics.
Alternative labels
Occupation group
recreational therapist (2269.9)
Source facts
| ESCO URI | http://data.europa.eu/esco/occupation/e6023abf-ced3-4ac9-9437-cc79e4396e3e |
|---|---|
| ESCO code | 2269.9.1 |
| ISCO group | 2269 |
| Concept type | Occupation |