GS104 - Grief Support Skills ::

The physical death of a deeply beloved animal is one of the most poignant, sacred and often emotionally devastating life passages animal lovers ever experience. I believe that our grief at these times deserves to be honored with acknowledgment of the legitimacy of our loss, and to be supported with great love, tenderness and effective support skills.

When another being truly cares, understands, and acknowledges the depth of our loss, our path is lighter. When the truth of a tender and difficult loss is acknowledged, we know we are not alone.

When we are understood, healing feels much more possible. All of us on earth are here together to help one another. 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 ofanimal death and grief will be relevant and helpful to all others. 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 brief, four session teleclass offers an introduction to these skills and ideas as well as an overview of the grief recovery process. There will be time in each session for questions and answers and discussion of the material.

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 Respose to Other's 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
• Intellectual Understanding of Grief

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 –the clients and the healers'— 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

Please note: Outside consultations or mentoring by the facilitator are not included in the course tuition. Your understanding is appreciated.

Fieldwork note: For participants taking this course as part of an ASN Program of Study, or for transfer credit to another institution, there is a specific Fieldwork assignment format (#2) unique to this course that is to be completed instead of the fieldwork format (#1) used for other ASN courses. The course specific fieldwork format for GS104 is located here. To purchase the Fieldwork component for this course, please click here.

Listen to a message from Instructor Teresa Wagner:

Several supportive articles by Teresa regarding animal loss are located online by clicking HERE.

Class Details:

*Early registration incentive pricing available 2 weeks in advance. On Demand pricing.

This class is faciliated by Teresa Wagner

Click here to visit our calendar for available class dates and to enroll now!

This class is also available on-demand. Click here to purchase.