Animal healing
Animal healing is spiritual or energy healing given to animals rather than people. Some healing groups offer it in person or at a distance: the White Eagle Lodge, a spiritual organisation, says its distant healing work for animals is much like its work for people, and is given without charge to anyone who asks for an animal.[1] Australian law reserves much of the diagnosis and treatment of animals for registered veterinarians. In New South Wales, for example, it limits what anyone else may do to an animal and what they may call themselves.[2]
Description
Spiritual healing for animals
Spiritualist healers hold that healing does not depend on the faith of the one receiving it. The Spiritualists' National Union of Western Australia says that a child, an animal or someone in a coma can receive spiritual healing whatever their beliefs, while stressing that patients should keep up any prescribed medical treatment.[3] It notes that some people bring their pets to its services for healing.[4] See Spiritual healing.
The White Eagle Lodge gives healing for animals through groups and distant healers, and describes its aim as serving individual animals and their carers and encouraging better welfare for animals in general.[1]
Reiki for animals
Reiki is also given to animals. A study published in Brazil in 2021 describes a Reiki master giving a single 16-minute session to dogs straight after desexing surgery in a veterinary hospital, while every dog in the study also received the usual pain relief from the veterinary team. It was a small trial of 30 dogs, comparing Reiki with no treatment and with simulated Reiki given by someone who was not a practitioner.[5] See Reiki.
Animal communication
Some people offer "animal communication" alongside healing; the Spiritualists' National Union of WA, for example, lists it among the other qualifications of one of its healers; that is the healer's own qualification, not a service of the union.[3] Spiritfold has not found a credible published description of the practice to report here.
Scope
What it includes
What it is not
- It is not veterinary science. In New South Wales, examining or attending an animal in order to diagnose its physical condition is a restricted act of veterinary science, along with procedures that need anaesthesia or sedation, most dental work and other listed procedures.[6] Only a veterinary practitioner may do a restricted act, apart from limited exceptions such as the animal's owner, the owner's employee in the course of their work, a supervised veterinary student, or an emergency when no vet is available.[2]
- It is not a substitute for veterinary treatment. Under New South Wales animal welfare law, a person in charge of an animal commits an offence if they fail to provide veterinary treatment when the animal needs it,[7] and that Act defines veterinary treatment as treatment, diagnosis or consultation by or under the direction of a veterinary practitioner.[7]
Traditions and lineage
Animal healing draws on the wider traditions of spiritual healing and Reiki; see Spiritual healing and Reiki.[3][5] The authors of the 2021 Brazilian study wrote that, to their knowledge, Reiki's effect on pain had not been investigated in veterinary science before.[5]
Context
Within Spiritualism
Spiritfold has found no published source that treats healing for animals as a separate Spiritualist practice. It is part of spiritual healing as some Spiritualists describe it: the Spiritualists' National Union of WA says that animals, like people, can receive spiritual healing.[3]
In Australian Spiritualism
The Spiritualists' National Union of WA has healers available before its Sunday evening services, and says some people bring their pets along for it.[4]
A Spiritualist perspective
Where Spiritualists hold, as the SNU WA does, that animals can receive healing, a teacher would welcome an animal brought to a healing service. The same care applies as with any patient, and more, because an animal cannot say what is wrong. A healer gives healing; they do not examine, diagnose or treat, and in Australia those tasks belong to a registered veterinarian, as the law described above makes clear.
A thoughtful teacher would ask healers never to suggest that healing can replace a vet, never to comment on an animal's illness or medicines, and to encourage owners to keep following their vet's advice. Healing offered in that spirit sits comfortably alongside veterinary care.
Animal healing in Australia
Veterinary law
Veterinarians are registered by a board in each jurisdiction, and a vet who wants to work in Australia applies to the board where they intend to work.[8] The laws differ in their detail. In New South Wales, besides restricting certain acts to vets, the law makes it an offence for anyone who is not a veterinary practitioner to be represented as one, including by using the words "veterinary surgeon", "veterinary practice", "veterinary", "vet" or "animal doctor", or words derived from them. A person who is not a vet also cannot recover a fee for doing a restricted act.[2] In Victoria, the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board registers people so that they may hold themselves out as veterinary practitioners.[9]
Vets who use complementary therapies
Veterinary boards also set standards for vets who offer complementary or alternative therapies. The Veterinary Practice Board of Western Australia's guidelines, which apply from 8 August 2023, say a diagnosis should rest on sound, accepted principles of veterinary medicine, that such therapies should complement conventional veterinary medicine and not delay or prevent it, and that owners must be told enough to make an informed decision, including that the treatment is complementary or alternative.[10]
Safety and good practice
The legal limits above set the boundaries for anyone offering healing to animals. In New South Wales, someone who is not a vet must not examine an animal to diagnose its condition, must not present themselves as a vet or use words such as "vet" or "veterinary" to describe themselves, and the person in charge of an animal must get it veterinary treatment when it needs it.[6][2][7] The SNU WA reminds people receiving healing to keep up any prescribed treatment.[3]
Common questions
Can a healer diagnose or treat an animal's illness?
Not in the veterinary sense. In New South Wales, examining an animal to diagnose its condition is restricted to veterinary practitioners, with narrow exceptions such as the owner or an emergency.[6][2]
Can an animal healer call themselves a vet or offer "veterinary" services?
Not in New South Wales, where using "vet", "veterinary", "animal doctor" or similar words to represent someone who is not a veterinary practitioner is an offence.[2]
Is healing a substitute for taking an animal to the vet?
No. New South Wales law makes it an offence for a person in charge of an animal not to provide veterinary treatment when it is needed.[7]
Related modalities
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 White Eagle Lodge. "Healing Animals" (no date shown; accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Veterinary Practice Act 2003 (NSW), sections 7–11. NSW Legislation, current version from 13 January 2023 (accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Spiritualists' National Union of WA. "Healing" (no date shown; accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Spiritualists' National Union of WA. "About Us" (no date shown; accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Pacheco, Leandro, Marina Marangoni, Evandro de Oliveira Rodrigues, Karine de Oliveira Marques Pacheco and Gabrielle Coelho Freitas. "Postoperative analgesic effects of Reiki therapy in bitches undergoing ovariohysterectomy". Ciência Rural 51 (2021): e20200511. doi:10.1590/0103-8478cr20200511 (accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Veterinary Practice Regulation 2013 (NSW), clause 4. NSW Legislation, current version from 1 July 2021 (accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (NSW), sections 4 and 5. NSW Legislation, current version from 25 March 2026 (accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ Australasian Veterinary Boards Council. "AVBC Member Registration Boards" and "Veterinary Registration in Australia and New Zealand" (accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria. "Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria". boards.vic.gov.au (accessed 14 October 2026).
- ↑ Veterinary Practice Board of Western Australia. Complementary and Alternative Therapy Guidelines. Apply from 8 August 2023 (accessed 14 October 2026).
Further reading
- Veterinary Practice Board of Western Australia. Complementary and Alternative Therapy Guidelines. 2023.
- Veterinary Practice Act 2003 (NSW). NSW Legislation.