Interspecies Chaplaincy Services

Spiritual support for those who love, grieve, care for, defend, protect, advocate for, and honor those of another species.

Interspecies Chaplaincy

Interspecies chaplaincy means I provide spiritual support for those who find the holy and sacred in interspecies connections, those seeking spiritual support around a relationship with a specific animal, or those who serve or work with other species in a professional or serious volunteer capacity.

Interfaith doesn’t mean you need to believe in a higher power, I enthusiastically welcome atheists and identify as agnostic myself.

Chaplaincy Sessions are offered on a sliding scale with a base rate of $50 for 50 minutes. If you can give more, please consider it to support this sliding scale model, if you’re in a season where you need a discounted rate, that’s okay. Don’t let needing additional support stop you.

Honoring Bonds

Whether it’s honoring the sacred responsibility undertaken when adopting an animal into your family or the grief that comes with the death of someone with whom you shared your days, home, and heart; chaplaincy sessions, ceremonies, and funerals are all available to those who know the deep bond that often forms between members of different animal species.

Seeing the Sacred

As a person who has always felt the holy and sacred most clearly in the miracle of biodiversity, I provide spiritual support to those who also see the divine most clearly among or between diverse expressions of sentience.

Healing the Helpers

Veterinarians and support staff, sanctuary workers, humane agents, foster parents, conservationists, undercover investigators, advocates, and humane educators are just some of the people I work with who work with or on behalf of other species.

Some Reasons You May Want An Interspecies Chaplain

  • Dealing with Animal Loss/Death/Surrender and related grief

  • To support end-of-life or medical treatment discernment

  • Missing or lost animal companion panic, worry, or grief

  • Animal caretakers seeking spiritual support

  • Seeking someone to facilitate a funeral or memorial service for a beloved animal

  • Support in designing your own ceremony to honor an animal's life and death

  • Seeking facilitation of an adoption ceremony/interspecies family dedication

  • Support in designing your own adoption or interspecies family dedication ceremony

  • Anticipatory grief for animal loss to address undue fear and dread

  • You’re a veterinarian or work in the veterinary field and experience stress and burnout symptoms in your work

  • You’re vegan and suffer from grief, PTSD, or other symptoms of exposure to the systemic violence and exploitation of other animal species

  • You conduct or have conducted investigations into animal crimes or industries that cause harm to animals

  • You do conservation work and are burdened with the knowledge and fear around species extinction and habitat destruction

A note to professionals

I found that traditional therapy was not always helpful for me when seeking support for this type of work. While chaplaincy services are not a substitute for clinical mental health services, they may be the right type of support for you if you’re seeking to make meaning of the work you’re doing in a world without a tacit agreement that humans are not superior to all other animals or forms of life.

I have done paid and volunteer work in a number of capacities in animal advocacy and protection for decades and I am happy to answer questions about that if you would like.

  • I was stuck. My beloved little dog had been hit by a car and died. I have been involved in rescue most of my adult life and I wasn't getting better. The circumstances were excruciatingly painful. Talking with Dallas got me unstuck. I had a palpable shift. I told my wife afterwards that I felt myself move out of that rut. Two days later, I was able to open my heart and soul, and trust myself to a very sad and miserably ill little dog. Today, he is healthy and strong. And happy and loved.

    Annetta P.C.