Animals, much like humans, experience emotional distress. Whether it's anxiety from a change in their environment, trauma from past experiences, or deep-rooted fear, these emotions often manifest in their behaviour and energy. By blending the principles of humanistic counselling with animal communication, we can create a compassionate and effective way to help pets in distress heal and find balance.
I'm a humanistic counsellor (at university) and I am combining my two worlds of counselling and animal communication to help owners, and their pets heal, connect and thrive.

What Is Humanistic Counselling?
Humanistic counselling is a therapeutic approach that focuses on empathy, understanding, and the individual’s innate capacity for growth and healing. Developed by psychologists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, it emphasises creating a safe, non-judgmental space where clients feel truly heard and understood. Key elements include:
Unconditional Positive Regard:Â Accepting individuals without judgment.
Empathy:Â Deeply understanding their emotions and experiences.
Active Listening: Being fully present and attentive to what’s being communicated, both verbally and non-verbally.
Applying Humanistic Techniques to Animal Communication
While humanistic counselling is designed for people, its principles can be adapted to animal communication to support pets in emotional distress. This is what I offer owners a chance to facilitate for their anima.s Letting them feel heard and understood can have a massive impact on healing.
Here’s how these techniques can translate into helping animals:
Creating a Safe Energetic Space
Animals, like humans, need to feel safe to express themselves. When communicating with an animal, it’s essential to approach them with calm energy, patience, and openness. This mirrors the concept of unconditional positive regard, where the animal feels no pressure or judgment, allowing them to share their emotions more freely. I offer a non-judgemental space, empathy and really listen to their experience without needing to correct. Animals tend to feel calm in my presence because I am open and a safe space. I ensure to keep up my own energetic hygiene practises too.
Empathy Through Intuition
Empathy is at the heart of both humanistic counselling and animal communication. By tuning into an animal’s energy and emotions intuitively, we can gain insight into their fears, needs, and desires. For example, a dog who appears aggressive might actually feel anxious or insecure. Recognising this underlying emotion helps guide the healing process. It is through understanding these behaviours that we can make changes to help support our animals who may be in distress. It isn't always an instant fix, but healing rarely is.

Helping Animals Heal
Once we’ve understood an animal’s distress using these techniques, we can begin the process of healing. Here are some ways humanistic approaches can make a difference:
Acknowledging Their Experience:Â Just as humans feel relief when their emotions are validated, animals benefit from having their feelings understood. Simply acknowledging their fear, sadness, or confusion can bring them comfort. Releasing tension can be seen during sessions.
Guiding Through Energy Healing:Â Combining communication with energy healing helps clear emotional blocks. For example, reiki or intuitive energy work can soothe an anxious pet, helping them release built-up tension.
Encouraging Mutual Understanding: Sharing what we learn with the pet’s owner is equally important. Humanistic techniques emphasise relationships, and helping owners understand their pet’s emotions strengthens the bond between them.
Being brave to be different: Showing our animals that we are willing to put their needs above "old school thinking" and show compassion and kindness.
Case Example: Healing Through Communication
A client contacted me who had been having aggression issues with her horse and had been finding it difficult to be around him, he had started charging her in the field and she had lost confidence in herself. She needed to understand where his aggression was coming from. When we visited, her horse was able to share with me that it was another horse that had been bullying him and he felt powerless and had a lot of pent-up anxiety and aggression. He saw his owner becoming less confident and he started to lash out at her for being fearful around him, he felt guilty making her feel worried. I likened it to a human child, parents (especially Mother's) often get the worst of the behaviour because we're the safe space where all those emotions spill out. The horse suggested time away from the horse causing him issues and the owner facilitated. Almost instantly his personality changed and he was back to being loving and she was able to once again be around him without aggression. He felt heard and his needs were met. Sometimes that is all it takes to see changes in our animals - being heard and accepted without judgement.
Why It Matters
Using humanistic counselling principles in animal communication creates a bridge of empathy and understanding. It reminds us that, like humans, animals are emotional beings with their own experiences, fears, and desires. By addressing these emotions compassionately, we can help our pets heal from distress and lead happier, more balanced lives.
Final Thoughts
When we communicate with animals through a humanistic lens, we create an opportunity for healing that goes beyond solving behavioural issues. We foster trust, strengthen the bond between pet and owner, and offer animals the emotional support they deserve.
If your pet is experiencing distress, consider how animal communication, paired with empathy and healing, could make all the difference. Sometimes, simply being heard is the first step on their journey to recovery.
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