The Pet Bereavement Counsellor Diploma Course begins by exploring the bond that humans have forged with animals and how pets are most often considered as family. As such, when that bond is broken through loss, the impact can be just as strong as losing a human family member, especially in cases where a non-human companion is all the family that someone has.

You will explore the topic of grief in detail, including a breakdown of the 7 stages of grief. This will provide a thorough understanding of the process and how its effects are no different whether the loss is a human or an animal. You will also look at the symptoms of grief and the warning signs of when grief becomes depression. From this, you will be fully prepared to make initial contact with a grieving pet owner and understand all the types of emotional and physical reactions they may be having as a result of their loss.

The Pet Bereavement Counsellor Diploma Course takes you step-by-step through the therapy process, exploring common practices and techniques to help clients to gain acceptance and begin to heal. This details the steps you can take to give a client immediate help with coping, to more long-term aid in the form of psychological healing. You will be introduced to various therapy tasks, options and practices that deal specifically with the grieving process, along with approaches that are specific to animal-related grief.

Grief can become more complicated and affect the mental health of the sufferer on a long-term basis. Through studying the course, you will learn to recognise the development of mental illness in clients and how to help these clients accordingly.