Grief Support Skills: How to Effectively Support Others Who Grieve the Loss of a Pet
|
LENGTH: |
8 hours Teleclass, four sessions held over 4 weeks, 2 hours each |
|---|---|
| DATES: | Currently available On Demand to take at your leisure |
|
COST: |
$234 for 8 hours of recording and full handout package |
|
REGISTER: |
Click here to register |
|
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: |
Losing an animal, for some of us, is one the most painful experiences of our lives. And, it can be challenging to know whether we are saying or doing the most effective things when attempting to help those who are struggling with the pain of how to grieve the loss of a pet. This class is designed to help you build, refresh or reaffirm your abilities to effectively support others who grieve the loss of a beloved animal--to help them through their pain and healing process with both tender compassion and specific grief counseling skills. This class is appropriate for anyone who is exposed to people grieving the loss of their animal loved ones: animal communicators, veterinary professionals, animal shelter and rescue group workers, trainers and behaviorists, therapists, energy healers, as well as friends and family members who want to better support their loved ones who are grieving. |
|
Empathy is language |
Image copyright Nancy Bright, used with permission and gratitude. Please visit her site to see her astounding art available in prints and cards.
|
CONTENT AND PURPOSE
Effectively and lovingly offering support to someone through the challenge of grief can make a huge, positive difference in that person's healing journey. But learning how to effectively help others who grieve the loss of a pet requires far more than feeling sympathy. It also requires specific skills. When another being truly cares, understands, and acknowledges the depth of our loss, our path is lighter. When the truth of a painful and difficult loss is acknowledged, we know we are not alone. When we are understood, healing feels much more possible. Almost anyone seeing another in emotional pain wants to help. Yet, seeing or hearing someone in great anguish can also be overwhelming and intimidating. We may feel awkward or unsure about what to say or do. Sometimes in attempts to help, friends, family and even professional counselors, healers or authors impose their beliefs, thinking that their own paradigms of animal death and grief will be relevant and helpful to everyone. For grievers, this intentional or unconscious imposing gets in the way of them discovering for themselves what they believe or need, and what will work for them. It also often adds anger and frustration to an already stressful time of grief.
The most empowering things we can do to help grievers is to learn to be truly present with their suffering: to listen, not advise; to judiciously and gently suggest possibilities, not impose our beliefs as fact; to be with them as they find their own way, not judge, push or prod them in the way we think they should grow. To be truly present with someone's pain without feeling a need to fix it, reconcile it, or recoil from it is one of the most powerful gifts we can give another. It requires patience, discernment of what to say when, skills of empathic expression, and great respect for the wisdom of the other's soul. These delicate and subtle grief support skills can be learned and integrated into our practices as animal communicators and healers. This four session teleclass offers an introduction to these skills and ideas as well as an overview of the grief recovery process.
SESSION 1:
- What are energetic boundaries and energetic protection?
- Why are they important when working with people and animals in pain?
- A chakra perspective of these issues
- Levels of Compassionate Response to Others' Pain
- The Whale's Lesson on Death
- Specific techniques and strategies to practice energetic protection
SESSION 2:
- The Two Golden Rules of Grief Support
- Why Animal Loss is Different
- Personal Understanding of Grief:
- Intimate Self Awareness of our Motivation to Help and our Orientation as Helpers/Healers
- Intellectual Understanding of Grief:
- The fallacy of stages of grief;
- Understanding the tasks of healing grief and choices involved
- Complicated Grief;
- The Humpback Bridge
SESSION 3:
- The Skills of Empathy: The Core of Grief Support
- Using specific language to communicate compassion and support grievers
- Empathy vs. Projection
- Empathy vs. Enmeshment
- Empathy before Strategy-Always!
- Permission to offer resources or ideas vs. imposing them
SESSION 4:
- The Role of Spiritual Beliefs and Paradigms in the Grief Support Process: Helpful or Hindrance?
- Specific Do's and Don'ts Known to Help Grievers
- Resources on grief support for additional learning and referral
More classes: The Professional Program on Animal Loss and Grief Support sponsored by the Animal Spirit Network offers a full curriculum of classes--many of which Teresa teaches--on both helping others understand how to grieve the loss of a pet and healing from our own losses.