Main focus

The main focus of the special chair of Anthrozoology at the Open University of the Netherlands lies on animal-assisted interventions within clinical psychology.

Our aim is to better understand the human-animal relationship and to investigate the potential of animal-assisted interventions. A central question is what we can learn from the human-animal relationship to better understand human functioning and to design effective interventions. This leads us in our research and teaching. 

The chair contributes to education in the field of human-animal relationship and knowledge transfer.

Theme page

See also our theme page (in Dutch): Het effect van een huisdier / the effect of pets.