Managing Grief Over Pet Passing

Marty and Laura are joined by Lindsay Stanton, grief coach and author to discuss managing grief after losing a pet.

“At the end of the day, grief and trauma run down very parallel paths,” Stanton noted. “And depending on the type of grief that you’re experiencing, it can be extremely traumatic. And depending on the way the person or pet passed, it can be extremely traumatic.”

“If you’re really a dog person or really a cat person, you understand the gravity of that loss,” Marty said. “And society oftentimes minimizes it by saying, well, it’s just a dog, it’s just a cat, and it’s really insensitive. And it’s really inappropriate because we need to help people and for children especially, not that this is easy as an adult either, but for children especially, this may be the first loss that they experience before a grandparent or before a parent is lost, it may be a pet.

“And so unfortunately, this can be a learning experience for younger people to learn to navigate through, how grief happens, the stages of grief and how to be kind to yourself. Sometimes you expect more of yourself than you should be able to provide. So I think it’s permission for people to learn how to grieve.”

Stanton walks our hosts and listeners through various coping skills for managing grief, including yoga, meditation and reiki.

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.