So You Want to Bring Your Dog to Work
Ethical, Clinical, and Cultural Considerations for Animal-Assisted Practice
6 CE Credits | $120 | Saturday, March 21, 2026
In-Person Workshop | Gaithersburg, MD
Co-Sponsored by the Maryland Psychological Association (MPA)
Bringing a dog into your clinical practice can be clinically powerful and ethically complex. This full-day, in-person workshop is designed for licensed mental health professionals who are curious about incorporating a therapy or facility dog into their work and want to do so thoughtfully, responsibly, and with cultural humility.
Co-taught by two clinicians actively practicing animal-assisted therapy, this course moves well beyond “How do I?” and into deciding if it’s right for you, your clients, and your practice. And if so, how to do it well.
Who This Workshop Is For
This course is ideal for psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, MFTs, and other licensed clinicians who:
• Are considering bringing a dog into their office or clinical work
• Already work with a therapy or facility dog and want a stronger ethical grounding
• Receive requests for emotional support animal (ESA) letters and feel uncertain
• Want to better understand cultural, trauma-informed, and accessibility concerns
• Are practice owners navigating competing staff preferences, liability concerns, and space considerations
No prior experience with animal-assisted therapy is required.
What This Course Covers
Participants will gain a clear, practical understanding of:
Definitions That Matter
Service animals, emotional support animals, therapy dogs, and facility dogs. What they are, what they are not, and why these distinctions are ethically and legally critical.
ESA Letters: Risks, Boundaries, and Best Practices
A careful, evidence-informed discussion of when (and when not) to provide ESA documentation, including clinical competence, awareness of secondary gain concerns, liability, and impact on the therapeutic relationship.
Cultural Humility and Diversity Considerations
How culture, religion, trauma history, and socioeconomic context shape clients’ comfort with animals. Learn how to avoid assumptions, invite conversation, and adapt care respectfully.
Ethics and Liability
Professional responsibility, informed consent, documentation, insurance considerations, and practice-level risk management, including in group practice settings.
Clinical Application Across Populations
Case examples of AAT with children, teens, adults, couples, and families, including dog phobias, rapport-building, emotional regulation, and social skills development.
Caring for the Working Dog
Ethical responsibility toward the animal: workload, boundaries, health, emotional well-being, as well as disability and retirement. How to communicate these realities to clients.
Getting Started (or Deciding Not To)
Training pathways, certifications (what matters and what doesn’t), facility vs. therapy dog models, and realistic costs, financial and otherwise.
How the Day Is Structured
This is an interactive, discussion-rich workshop that blends:
• Didactic teaching grounded in ethics and current literature
• Real-world case studies from active clinical practice with children, adults, and couples.
• Participant included demonstrations with our therapy dogs
• Small-group and paired discussions, including a working lunch break at a local neighborhood restaurant.
• Guided self-reflection and practical planning exercises
You’ll leave with clarity about whether an animal-assisted model fits your values, clients, and practice.
Presenters
Elizabeth Carr, PsyD, is the Founding Owner of Kentlands Psychotherapy and has integrated her therapy dog, Riley, into her work with adults and couples for over nine years.
Elsy Estrada, LCSW-C, is a Child and Adolescent Clinician at Kentlands Psychotherapy who has incorporated her therapy dog, Winnie, into her work with children for over two years.
Both presenters bring lived clinical experience, ethical rigor, and a balanced, non-evangelical approach to animal-assisted practice.
FAQs
Who? Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, and other mental health clinicians are encouraged to attend.
To maximize participation, the workshop will be limited to 15 participants.
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What? The workshop provides 6 CEUs on Animal-Assisted Therapy Practice Issues, including 3 credits for Ethics and 1 credit in Cultural Diversity.
This program is co-sponsored by the Maryland Psychological Association (MPA), an APA-approved continuing education sponsor.
The Maryland Psychological Association (MPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. MPA maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
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How Much? The fee for our program is $120. Register using our secure Constant Contact online system.
Cancellations received on or before March 16, 2026, are eligible for a refund minus a $25 administrative fee to cover credit card processing and administrative costs. After this date, we encourage and permit participant substitutions. Please let us know if you are cancelling due to an emergency.
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When? Saturday, March 21, 2026, 9 AM – 3:30 PM
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Where? Kentlands Psychotherapy office, 301 Inspiration Lane, Loft, Gaithersburg, MD, 20878
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Why? Because dogs are awesome, and we’ll learn a lot about AAT while having fun! Coffee and snacks included!
A Note About Bringing Dogs to the Workshop
While this course focuses on the ethical and clinical integration of dogs into psychotherapy, participants should not bring their own dogs to the workshop. To ensure a focused, safe, and manageable learning environment, only the two trained therapy dogs on our teaching team will be present.
Limiting the number of dogs allows us to:
• Maintain a calm and predictable environment for all attendees
• Ensure safety and comfort for all participants
• Model best practices around boundaries, structure, and intentional use of animals in professional settings
The workshop will include live observation and discussion of animal-assisted work with the presenters’ therapy dogs, providing ample opportunity to learn without the complexity of multiple unfamiliar dogs in the space.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
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