Pet Loss Grief Support Professional Training

DAY 1

Foundations of Grief and Pet Loss Grief

• Grief types and misconceptions
• DSM-5-TR™ Prolonged Grief and ICD-11 criteria
• Comparing to other DSM-5 diagnoses like anxiety, depression, PTSD
• Influences on the grief journey

The Human-Animal Bond: Attachment, Identity, and Role Loss

• The role of human-pet attachment bonds
• Unhealthy vs. healthy bonds
• Secondary losses: identity, role, routine
• Populations most at risk

Get Started as a Pet Loss Grief Provider: Key Concepts, Skills, and Working with Disenfranchised Grief

• Distinctions between pet and human loss
• Pet grief as disenfranchised grief: making a difference in the world’s perception
• Elevate pet loss with cultural norms
• The 6 skills pet loss providers need

Trauma-Informed Grief Work: Principles and Applied Strategies

• The six principles of trauma-informed care
• Evaluate client risks and protective resources
• Strategies to avoid re-traumatization
• Prevent therapist secondary trauma and compassion fatigue
• Navigate euthanasia as potential trauma before and after loss

When Pet Grief is Compounded by Other Losses

• The concept of layered losses
• Impacts of compounded grief
• Strategies to manage multiple loss overwhelm
• Tools for managing overlapping grief reactions

Working with Specific Pet Loss Populations

• Men’s pet loss grief: norms, stigma, data
• Single and childless owners
• Disabled owners with service animals
• Other populations: children, divorcing pet owners, seniors

Assessment Tools, Intake Forms, Worksheets, and More

• Assessments, intake forms, QOL form
• Key intake components (worksheet)
• Targeted grief psychoeducation (worksheet)
• Evaluate support systems and resources (worksheet)
• Grief-reaction intensity scales
• Mindset/visualization and other techniques
• Identify unhealed past loss and grief … and incorporate into treatment plan
• Communication dos and don’ts

DAY 2

Anticipatory Grief: When Clients Know a Pet is Near the End of Life

• Evaluate and educate clients
• Contrast anticipatory grief vs. post-loss grief
• Identify and normalize anticipatory grief signs
• How to understand and use anticipatory grief as post-loss precursor

Shame, Guilt, Regret, and More: Common Experiences, Assessment, and Intervention Strategies

• Overview of the 7 anticipatory grief experiences vs. stages of grief
• Tools and worksheets for each experience
• The most common presenting problems: shame, guilt, and regret
• Assess for signs and symptoms in clients
• Interventions for short-term, long-term, and sudden loss contexts
• Trauma-informed grief work with anticipatory loss
• Research, risks and treatment limitations

Clinical Considerations and Ethical Dilemmas

• Self-disclosure
• Assist in treatment vs. euthanasia decisions
• How to balance hope with impending loss preparation
• Address distress in sudden decline or emergency euthanasia
• Prevention of suicidal risk post loss

Tools for Hope, Resilience, and Transformation

• Understand the 3 dimensions of grief
• The power of continuing bonds and how to create them
• Cultivate resilience in life after loss
• Tools for transformative experiences