Pet bereavement counselling

Whether we lose a Family member, someone near to us, or a Pet, grief is devasting and without the right understanding and support it can easily turn into a long time of suffering from Depression, Anxiety, PTSD. It even has the potential to ruin the sufferer’s life. As all of you animal lovers out there know how distressing it is for us when out faithful friends leave us. 

When I was 10 years old, I experienced death for the first time. I was staying with my grandparents when I received a phone call from my mum to tell me that Micky, my friend, a beautiful green and blue budgie had died.  It was absolutely awful.  I was so distraught, and still to this day I remember the grief little Monica suffered. 

Then a few years ago, Lucy, my black cat and furry friend of almost 19 years had to be put down. Again I was utterly heartbroken.  And my grieving prompted me to wonder how people dealt with the loss of their pet, whether that pet was big or small, the owner young or old, male or female.   

How did children cope when faced with death for the first time?  

And older people for whom their pet was their only company and friend? 

Well, I found out there’s not much help out there. So what did I do?  I trained as a Pet Bereavement Therapist. 

The role a PBT plays, is an exceptionally important one, as it helps the bereaved get through their journey through the “grief tunnel” and come out the other side. Animals have been part of mankind’s life for many hundreds and thousands of years and as man evolved so did the journey of animals evolve alongside them. Nowadays animals are regularly treated like family members and actually for many people their pet is the only family they’ve got. 

Over the last few decades science has given us a valuable knowledge regarding our fury friends, what they do for us and their character.  Those of us who have pets and our close bond with them know that each animal has its own personality, habits and preferences.  And science has now begun to acknowledge this e.g. not testing products on animals and how sentient they are – they can feel, they are aware, they build relationships, make friends etc.  and that we are biologically closer to animals than we have thought before.  We have the same reactions of hormones to animals as to humans and therefore it’s not surprising that we feel so much grief when we lose an animal. 

Throughout my life, I, as well as many of my friends and family have lost our precious fury friends, both big and small.   

This grief can be profound especially even more so, for the young and old.  Therefore, as I was a Therapist I decided to train and qualify as a Pet Bereavement Therapist because I feel this an area that is sorely ignored. When we lose a pet our grief can be a crippling. Without the correct understanding and support, grief can easily turn into many years of suffering quite often resulting in depression. A single misunderstood period of grief has the potential to ruin your whole life. Pet Bereavement Therapy is a new and ‘stand-alone’ therapy devoted entirely to help you through the grief of losing your pet. 

There is light at the end of the grieving tunnel. 

Over the last few decades science has given us a valuable knowledge regarding our fury friends, what they do for us and their character.  Those of us who have pets and our close bond with them know that each animal has its own personality, habits and preferences.  And science has now begun to acknowledge this e.g. not testing products on animals and how sentient they are – they can feel, they are aware, they build relationships, make friends etc.  and that we are biologically closer to animals than we have thought before.  We have the same reactions of hormones to animals as to humans and therefore it’s not surprising that we feel so much grief when we lose an animal. 

My use of Hypnotherapy, NLP, Mindfulness, Coaching and BLS-RT will get you through this very tough period.