Pets and People

Los­ing an ani­mal friend can feel as dev­as­tat­ing as los­ing a human loved one. For many peo­ple their ani­mal friend has been the most sig­nif­i­cant “other” in their lives and with the animal’s pass­ing they expe­ri­ence a deep hurt and grief that often their human fam­ily and friends do not under­stand. They might say “oh, it’s just a pet, you will get over it” or advise that the best cure is to get another ani­mal to replace the one lost. You on the other hand are left feel­ing sad, empty, iso­lated and expe­ri­enc­ing unbear­able emo­tional pain. Your ani­mal com­pan­ion brought uncon­di­tional love, com­fort, tol­er­ance, respect, joy and mean­ing to your life. The empty space left where once there was a rowdy bark and big lick, or a soft meow or the stroking of your leg by a furry tail, or the loud happy chirppy greet­ing when the cage is uncov­ered, is almost too painful to endure. What­ever ani­mal com­pan­ion you have lost, you are left with the real­i­sa­tion that you a way of life has passed, as well as a dear friend.

Coun­selling with a ther­a­pist who under­stands your feel­ings of grief and loss can help. Often the death of a dearly loved pet can evoke ques­tions about the sig­nif­i­cance of your rela­tion­ship, the after­life, and your pet’s soul. Just as when we lose a human loved one we often ask the ques­tion “why” of our spir­i­tual deity – what­ever belief sys­tem we fol­low. Irre­spec­tive of whether you are Chris­t­ian, Hindu, Mus­lim, Bud­dhist I can assist you through the use of story and sym­bol work, to mourn the loss of your ani­mal friend, sup­port you through the sad­ness, and assist you to develop mech­a­nisms and rit­u­als of remem­brance that will allow you to inte­grate the loss and grow spir­i­tu­ally and even­tu­ally be happy once again. There are no “shoulds, ought to, or musts”. As long as your griev­ing does not involve harm­ing your­self or break­ing any laws we can work through the process together. I have a large menagerie of ani­mal friends on the fam­ily prop­erty on the sun­shine coast. Pets that have died are all buried on the prop­erty. You can feel safe know­ing that I under­stand your deep attach­ment to your deceased ani­mal friend and com­pan­ion and will sup­port you through your grief jour­ney with warmth, com­pas­sion and understanding..

If you would like to make an appoint­ment to see me I oper­ate out of two loca­tions: Wednes­day I am based at the Wick­ham Prac­tice, Level 9, 135 Wick­ham Ter­race, Bris­bane other days I am based in my room on the Sun­shine Coast, 3 Franks Lane, Mooloolah Val­ley. Tele­phone 0400 539 710 or email me at bodhitree@internode.on.net

Julie Wilson-Hirst
Psychotherapist/Child and Fam­ily Coun­sel­lor
Mas­ter Men­tal Health (Psy­chother­apy)
Grad Cert Expres­sive Ther­a­pies, Ad. Dip Bud­dhist
Psychotherapy