The Healing Animal 2025

Directed by Christopher Beeson · Documentary · 75 min

A documentary about animal-assisted psychotherapy and the process of gender transition. The client we follow is Charlee, a 25-year-old transgender college student who moved to Colorado to escape gender persecution and seek legal rights to gender marker and name change as well as gender reassignment surgeries. The Healing Animal is unique in that it combines several topics into one story: actual psychotherapy sessions filmed over the course of a year, the legal, physical and emotional process of gender transition, LGBTQIA+ rights, and exploring the science behind animal-assisted psychotherapy.