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Build your skills in a rapidly growing area of need
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Every day, people face one of life’s most painful – and most misunderstood – forms of grief: the loss of a beloved pet.
It’s just as deep and devastating as the loss of a human family member. But society often downplays it leaving most suffering in silence – with nowhere to turn …
That’s exactly why I created the Pet Loss Grief Support Professional Training with PESI – an online training designed to equip you with the skills, tools and structure to provide truly meaningful support.
I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, coach and pioneer in the field of pet loss support with over 4 decades of experience. My work has been featured on Animal Planet, and I’m a sought-after trainer among both mental health and veterinary professionals.
Now, I want to share with you all I’ve learned so you can support grieving animal lovers with the empathy and professionalism they rarely receive – but deeply need.
I’ll show you exactly how to do this work so you can:
Support clients through anticipatory grief, sudden loss, and the emotional trauma of euthanasia decisions
Help people work through guilt, shame, regret, and identity loss
Serve diverse and often overlooked populations – including men, child-free adults, seniors, and those with service or emotional support animals
Facilitate healing by helping clients build resilience, maintain continuing bonds, and transform their grief into meaning
Whether you’re a counselor, social worker, family therapist or other helping professional – this training gives you the structure, tools and confidence you need.
You don’t have to figure this out on your own. I’ve spent years developing this model, and I’d be honored to walk beside you.
The need is real. The tools are here. The time is now.
Let’s make sure no one has to grieve the loss of their beloved animal alone ever again.
Credit
Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships
All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
* Credit Note - Self-Study CE Information Coming Soon
Continuing education credit information is coming soon for this non-interactive self-study package.
CE hours may be available for select professions, as listed in the target audience. Hours will be dependent on the actual recording time. Please check with your state licensing board or organization for specific requirements.
There may be an additional fee for CE certificates. Please contact our Customer Service at 1-800-844-8260 for more details.
**Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the authorized practice of your profession. As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your professions standards.
Nancy M. Gordon, LCSW, CLC, is a licensed clinical social worker and certified life coach with over four decades of experience in grief counseling. She specializes in the often-overlooked area of pet loss and anticipatory grief, providing trauma-informed care that acknowledges the profound bonds between humans and their animal companions. Nancy’s unique approach combines professional expertise with person experience. After the loss of her two service dogs, Toaster and Pink, within nine months of each other, she developed the 7 Powerful Practices to Manage Your Mind and Heal Your Heart, a methodology that transforms grief into a profound journey of hope, healing and personal growth.
Nancy’s pioneering work with service dogs for chronic pain relief has been featured on Animal Planet and her commitment to transforming the perception and treatment of pet loss grief has made her a sought-after speaker and educator in both mental health and veterinary circles. She contributed chapters to two collaborative books and has been featured on Dr. Karen Becker’s Pet Grief Awareness as the pet grief expert in anticipatory pet loss and grief. She is the author of the forthcoming book I Miss You Already: Preparing for the Unbearable Loss of Your Pet.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Nancy Gordon maintains a private practice and receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Nancy Gordon is a member of the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care.
Distinguish between pet loss grief and human loss grief, including cultural perceptions and societal recognition.
Utilize psychoeducation to teach clients to better understand the nature of disenfranchised grief so they can grieve the loss of a pet without fear of judgement.
Evaluate how the complex decisions involved in saying goodbye to a pet, including euthanasia can lead to guilt and self-blame.
Distinguish between DSM-5-TR Prolonged Grief Disorder and other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD, and apply these distinctions to pet loss grief.
Identify anticipatory grief signs and how these signs transition into post-loss grief.
Define the theory of continuing bonds and its practical application in helping clients process pet loss grief, including post-loss resilience and transformation.
Use grief assessment tools, including intake forms, grief-reaction intensity scales, and quality of life assessment for clients.
Use strategies and interventions tailored to specific populations such a seniors, disabled pet owners, and those with compounded losses.
Utilize the principles of trauma-informed care in supporting clients with pet loss.
Define common grief experiences in pet loss, providing tools and worksheets for each experience to assist clients.
Identify the most common internal struggles experienced during anticipatory grief and the tools necessary to early intervention and prevention.
Formulate support for clients with unresolved guilt or shame stemming from decisions around euthanasia, pet surrender, or caregiver limitations.
Analyze risks, research and limitations in pet loss grief work.
Outline
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
Please note that the product you are purchasing is a pre-order and has not yet been recorded.
Typically, it is 4-6 weeks after the program date before the digital seminar will be available. If you decide to purchase, you will be notified when the product is ready to view.
Bundles Pricing
This product is part of a bundles which includes special pricing as displayed below.
Additional Participant CE Test
This version does not come with access to video content. Additional Participant CE Test must be purchased for each additional viewer. These viewers will watch the video with the main registrant, but will have individual access to course handouts and CE Certificate. The standard price of this program includes the CE Certificate for the main viewer.
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