ABSTRACT
A key element of well-being is connection, social connection through knowing and being together. Animals left to their own devices will make and work to maintain and enhance emotional relationships and connections with others and as human animals we are lucky that this proclivity also extends to us … provided we behave in an ‘acceptable’ way for that animal and that species remembering who we are as human animal hunter gatherers. This article will focus on strategies in partnership with animals through which we may promote well-being in young people and will expand on Hanlon et al.’s (2011, p. 34) articulation of a current need to “discover a new image of what it is to be human” to begin to promote well-being (Eckersley, 2004; Lane, 2000). This chapter will consider humans as part of nature, one element within our ecology (Bateson, 1972), and will consider ways to promote well-being which tap into our nature and our ability to learn to be well using our bodies and our emotions; the underpinning philosophy of which focuses on inter-dependence, intersubjectivity and cooperation with each other and with other species (Hemingway, 2011).
