Jenny Phillips
Published 13 March 2026
Professional practice across education, health, social care, and rehabilitation does not occur in isolation from the practitioner. Expectations are not neutral constructs. They are shaped by personal experience and influenced by professional learning, social interaction, and deeply held beliefs about human potential.
When practitioners believe development is possible, effort, creativity, and persistence increase.
Photo by Arthur Krijgsman on Pexels.com
Every practitioner enters their roles carrying lived experiences. These experiences, along with values and motivations, influence how they perceive ability. Engagement and progress are also affected. A wish to help or to promote inclusion often underpins professional identity. Fostering connection is also a key factor. Interactions with colleagues and organisational cultures further shape expectations. Wider societal narratives also shape the expectations of those receiving support.
Motivational perspectives include theories like Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory. These theories suggest that individuals act when they believe their effort will lead to meaningful outcomes. Within professional contexts, this principle applies not only to those receiving support but also to practitioners themselves. When practitioners believe development is possible, effort, creativity, and persistence increase. Conversely, where expectations are reduced—consciously or unconsciously—engagement, resourcing, and professional investment may also diminish. Research exploring expectancy effects demonstrates how both positive and negative expectations influence outcomes, shaping confidence, self-efficacy, and participation. Low expectations can quietly communicate limitation, while high yet realistic expectations can foster agency, pride, and growth.
Across sectors, expectations manifest differently but operate through similar mechanisms. In special educational needs (SEN) practice, healthcare, and social care environments, diagnostic labelling or social assumptions can reduce expectations of capability. These labels lead to lowered expectations. Such diagnostic overshadowing influences not only perception but also provision. It sometimes results in simplified opportunities. It can lead to reduced challenges or limited belief in developmental potential. Through professional experience within SEN contexts, it becomes evident that individuals possess abilities that may be expressed differently rather than absent altogether. When practitioners prioritise seeing the person beyond diagnosis and provide time, encouragement, and meaningful support, individuals frequently demonstrate growth, achievement, and increased self-worth. These experiences reinforce a reciprocal feedback loop in which success fosters confidence, which in turn encourages further engagement and development.
Animal-assisted and animal-informed practice introduces a distinctive shift within this dynamic. Animals do not hold preconceived expectations, social judgements, or diagnostic interpretations. Their responses are immediate, authentic, and grounded in present-moment interaction. Many species demonstrate acute sensitivity to human behaviour, tone, posture, and emotional state, responding to subtle physiological and behavioural cues. This creates relational environments in which individuals experience interaction free from evaluation or performance pressure. The animal becomes neither assessor nor authority, but participant within a shared experience.
Animals Don’t Judge
Photo by Jenny Phillips
Observed practice demonstrates how this relational neutrality can transform engagement. A cat independently approached a dis-regulated child. The cat walked alongside them. This enabled regulation through shared movement and mutual attention. It occurred without verbal demand or structured intervention. A ball python rested calmly within a child’s hands. This created space for emotional expression and communication. It allowed the child to become the knowledge holder among peers. This shift in power dynamics fostered confidence. Similarly, an alpaca’s calm response to an unexpected sensory interaction transformed a moment of uncertainty into laughter and curiosity, while an adult learner with a fear of dogs gradually developed confidence through interaction beginning at a perceived safe distance, ultimately resulting in joy, connection, and voluntary engagement. In each instance, the animal acted as a relational mediator, scaffolding experience without judgement or imposed expectation.
Such outcomes highlight the importance of flexibility within professional practice. While structured assessment and planning remain essential, meaningful moments often emerge unexpectedly. Effective practitioners develop the capacity to recognise and safely utilise these moments, balancing professional intention with responsiveness to real-time needs. Flexibility is therefore not improvisation but a skilled professional competency grounded in knowledge, experience, and ethical awareness. Experiences within educational and healthcare environments demonstrate that when practitioners remain open to emergent opportunities, deeper relational engagement and holistic understanding frequently occur. For example, therapeutic interaction between a hospitalised child and a visiting dog facilitated emotional expression that had previously remained inaccessible through traditional practitioner-led approaches, enabling communication, comfort, and authentic connection.
Ethical professional practice requires expectations to remain both aspirational and realistic. Under-expectation risks limiting opportunity and reinforcing dependency, while over-expectation may generate pressure, anxiety, or perceived failure. Ethical expectations consider the needs of the person, the welfare of the animal, environmental context, and organisational responsibility simultaneously. Professional standards across teaching, nursing, and care professions implicitly embed expectations through accountability, safeguarding, inclusion, and reflective requirements. When enacted effectively, these standards support equitable, safe, and meaningful provision while encouraging practitioners to remain aware of personal bias and its potential influence on decision-making.
Reflection serves as the mechanism through which expectations evolve. Cyclical processes of assessment, implementation, reassessment, and reflection—mirrored across professional disciplines—allow practitioners to critically examine outcomes, recognise assumptions, and adapt future practice. Reflective models encourage honesty, curiosity, and professional growth, enabling practitioners to identify both strengths and areas for development. Through reflection, expectations shift from fixed beliefs to informed professional judgments shaped by experience, evidence, and relational understanding.
Ultimately, expectations function as powerful determinants within professional environments. When grounded in ethical awareness, reflective practice, and person- and animal-centered thinking, expectations become catalysts for growth rather than constraints. Animals, through their authenticity and responsiveness, often reveal possibilities obscured by human assumptions. They remind practitioners that development emerges most strongly within environments characterised by trust, respect, and meaningful connection.
Animal-Assisted 