Pet Loss and Bereavement Therapy - Edmonton & St. Albert Psychologists

The loss of a pet can be devastating and hard to navigate for many reasons. Not everyone is an animal lover, and that’s okay. For those of us who are, looking for support from those who don’t understand this loss can make us feel like we shouldn’t be this sad, that life shouldn’t be this hard while you’re grieving. Your grief is valid. The loss may have been traumatic, the loss may have been expected (this is no less painful FYI). You’ve lost a member of your family. Life looks very different now. Grief is not a straight line. There may be anticipatory grief if there are discussions with your vet around end of life plans, there may be shock after a sudden loss. Grief is a complicated process and we can often feel like grief around pet loss is “less” than other types of loss.

Grief associated with pet loss can look like:

• Extreme sadness

• Struggling with daily functions

• Uncontrollable crying

• Changes in appetite

• Changes in sleeping

• Lack of motivation

• Feelings of emptiness

• Feelings of anger

• Feelings of guilt

• Shock

• Feeling a loss of purpose in the day

• Feelings of isolation - especially if your support network doesn’t understand your grief

• Trauma symptoms if the loss was traumatic

• Anxiety

• Stress

• Overwhelm

• Can bring up past grief and loss that was not resolved

How can therapy help?

In pet loss and bereavement therapy, we walk beside you through your grief journey. We help move you through the grieving process with compassion and empathy. Our goal is to support you to move through grief and to grieve the loss in a way that is meaningful to you. If there’s complicated grief, a supportive clinician can help you manage this. If it was a traumatic event, we can support you through trauma work as well as grief work.

Vets and vet techs - your work is HARD, vicarious trauma and primary trauma are both concerns for this population, you also experience grief and loss frequently. We see you too, reach out anytime for support. We appreciate all the work you do for our furry family members.

Summit Counselling Therapists Who Specialize in Pet Loss and Bereavement:

To learn more about our team members click here.

To book online with one of our therapists click on their name listed above. 

Pet Loss and Bereavement Therapy – Edmonton Psychologists

Summit Counselling Services

10328 121 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5N 1K8, Canada

Therapy for Pet loss and bereavement in Edmonton

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Summit Counselling Services is a psychology clinic located in Central Edmonton. We provide psychological services to children, adolescents, adults, seniors, couples, and families. We have a talented team of Edmonton psychologists, therapists and counsellors with a wide range of specializations and trainings at Summit Counselling Services who would be honoured to walk beside you on your journey. At Summit, we believe in therapy your way.  Our goal is to customize your psychotherapy and counselling sessions to best suit your needs.  We believe in the differences and unique perspectives each person brings to therapy and incorporate these into our work with you.