Summary: Many people experience disenfranchised grief after the loss of a pet—grief that is often unacknowledged and may become complicated if left unresolved. Validating this grief with empathy and understanding, and offering appropriate therapeutic support, can help people work through their loss and maintain a meaningful bond with their deceased companion.
Source: CABI
A new review in the CABI journal Human-Animal Interactions offers counseling professionals practical perspectives for supporting clients who are grieving the death of a companion animal.
The review emphasizes that during the COVID-19 pandemic many people spent extended time with their pets. For some, companion animals provided routine, comfort, and a sense of safety during periods of isolation, which in turn strengthened the human-animal bond.
Dr. Michelle Crossley, Assistant Professor at Rhode Island College, and Colleen Rolland, President and pet loss grief specialist at the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement (APLB), note that pets often serve multiple emotional roles for caregivers. Despite this, mourning a pet’s death remains frequently minimized or dismissed by society.
Dr. Crossley explains that perceptions of judgment may cause individuals to grieve privately and without social support. The review draws on existing research about pet loss and human bereavement and factors in how pandemic-related changes in everyday life influenced attachments to companion animals.
The authors aim to equip counselors with perspectives and strategies to better support clients who have strong attachments to their pets, and to highlight the therapeutic benefit of helping clients work through grief to a point of resolution—allowing them to preserve a continuing bond with their deceased pet in a healthy way.
The review stresses that stigma and lack of recognition for pet-related grief can complicate and prolong suffering. Counselors may increasingly encounter clients seeking help for pet loss, particularly in the wake of pandemic experiences that intensified pet companionship.
While empathy for human bereavement is often more readily given, other forms of loss are frequently overlooked. The authors point to several types of disenfranchised loss—including pregnancy loss, suicide, AIDS-related bereavement, and pet death—that tend to receive less social validation and support.
Ms. Rolland highlights that when relationships are not socially acknowledged, mourners are more likely to experience disenfranchised grief that cannot be properly resolved and may progress into complicated grief. One aim of the review is to identify factors that influence how an individual grieves a pet and to suggest counseling approaches that validate their experience.
Both authors recommend creating safe, non-judgmental spaces in which clients can explore the meaning and role of their companion animals. Such spaces help people name their loss, express emotions, and process the transition, which supports healing and the integration of the loss into their life story.
Dr. Crossley notes that losing a pet can be traumatic, particularly when attachment is strong, the pet played a major role in daily life, or the circumstances of the death were sudden or distressing. She and Ms. Rolland recommend that counselors explicitly acknowledge the legitimacy of pet loss grief and integrate pet loss-specific interventions into existing therapeutic approaches.
Practical approaches discussed in the review include individual counseling that validates the bond between client and pet, as well as group-based formats—either in-person or online—that allow people to share narratives, rituals, and mutual support. Group settings can reduce isolation and normalize emotional responses to pet bereavement.
For children and adults, expressive techniques such as drawing, painting, storytelling, or using figurines can help externalize feelings and fears related to the loss. These creative methods provide nonverbal pathways to grief processing and can be especially useful when words are hard to find.
Other therapeutic considerations include helping clients develop coping strategies, facilitating memory rituals that honor the pet’s life, exploring continuing bonds as a healthy form of attachment after loss, and educating family members or social supports about the importance of acknowledging the grief.
In conclusion, Dr. Crossley and Ms. Rolland argue that a better understanding of pet owners’ grief processes will help professionals create compassionate, nonjudgmental therapeutic environments. Recognizing and validating pet loss can encourage more open sharing in communities, promote healing, and may contribute over time to greater societal recognition of grieving for a companion animal as a normal and meaningful human experience.
About this grief and psychology research news
Author: Wayne Coles ([email protected])
Source: CABI
Contact: Wayne Coles – CABI
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “Overcoming the Social Stigma of Losing a Pet: Considerations for Counseling Professionals” by Michelle Crossley et al., published in Human-Animal Interactions
Abstract
Overcoming the Social Stigma of Losing a Pet: Considerations for Counseling Professionals
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people spent more time with their pets, relying on them to maintain routine and provide emotional security during isolation. Companion animals often fill important attachment roles for caregivers, and yet mourning a pet’s death remains frequently disenfranchised by society. Perceived judgment can force people to grieve in isolation and without social support.
This review seeks to inform counselors about how pandemic-era attachments and broader patterns of disenfranchised grief affect bereavement following pet loss. It offers clinical perspectives and recommendations to help practitioners validate clients’ grief, integrate pet loss-focused work into therapy, and support healthy grieving processes that allow for continued emotional connection to a deceased companion.