Grieving Before and After Pet Loss: Anticipatory Grief, Trauma, and When to Seek Help

About this episode

The episode discusses anticipatory grief and trauma related to pet loss, featuring insights from a pet loss therapist.

Grief doesn't always begin when a pet dies. For many pet parents, loss starts much earlier — the moment a serious diagnosis arrives, or when a beloved companion can no longer do the things they once loved. In this episode of Peace of Mind for Pet Parents, Karen Wylie, EdD and Gail Pope are joined by Judith Eve Rosen, LCSW, a licensed clinical social worker and pet loss therapist, for a compassionate, clinically informed conversation about the full emotional arc of pet grief. Judith walks pet parents through the landscape of anticipatory grief — the ongoing losses that accumulate during palliative and hospice care — and explains how that differs from the added trauma layer that comes with sudden, unexpected loss. She shares how acute trauma can develop into PTSD, and describes Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), a evidence-based treatment she uses to help people work through the painful beliefs — the I should haves and if onlys — that keep them stuck before they can truly grieve. The conversation also explores prolonged grief disorder, recently recognized in the DSM-5, and what it actually looks like in pet parents. Judith offers clear, compassionate guidance on the difference…

People in this episode

Hosts: Karen Wylie, Gail Pope

Guest: Judith Eve Rosen

Topics covered

• anticipatory grief
• pet loss
• trauma
• professional support
• prolonged grief disorder
• Cognitive Processing Therapy

Keywords

• grief
• pet loss
• anticipatory grief
• trauma
• PTSD
• Cognitive Processing Therapy
• prolonged grief disorder

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DSM-5, Cognitive Processing Therapy

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