Workbook #6
Lose a member of a family is very
painful. I strongly believe that pets are part of a family. My sister lost her
pet last year. It was a little female dog named lulu. Lulu was attacked by a
pit-bull and dies after few days. My sister called me very early that day and I
started to cry. I do not know if I cry because I kind of feel my sister pain or
I just feel sad because someone special in the family left. Off course this
feeling is not the same that I had when my grandfather die. It was five year
ago and I still feeling that pain and cry also every time my son see an old men
we remember my grandfather. Just loosing
someone is painful. I just finish my relationship with my boyfriend and it is
like losing someone. Even though he still alive I lost him and I am feeling
that pain now. It is hard to lose some one, no matter if it is a person or a
pet. In my own opinion an animal became an important part of a person life.
I think I will express my condolences to
the patient and then I will say something like “it seems that you are very sad,
I am sorry”. I believe that I will let my patient to talk about it until he/she
feels better and I will give empathy. After that I will probably help my
patient to find ways to replace that feeling of sadness with the feeling of
peace by encourage my client to remember the good things about the pet.
Sometimes it helps to feel better. Also I will ask my client about what
possibilities he/she has to substitute that dog for something us, like any
activity or maybe other pet. I like being counselor and I take my job and
position very seriously so I think that anything that my client comes to talk
about it is important part to considerate. I believe that this kind of
situation will be give me better possibilities to be close to my client.
Another part that I think it is very important to be address is the accident
itself. Show my client how important is for me his/her situation that I will
ask about the person in the car. And what has had happened to the driver. I
will try to make my client peace even if the car just run away.
As I said I have not pet and I think it
is because I am very attach to people and for me it is very hard to let the
people go so I thing that I refuse to have a pet because I do not want to feel
sad after it die. My son asks me many times to get a dog and my answer is
always “I cannot afford it”. That is true, I cannot afford it but also I just
protect myself from pain. By, Diana Maria Lopez
It's great that you are offering empathy, through out your counseling session with your client. Remembering the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and then acceptance, I think these stages are good thing to remember during your counseling session. Finding out more about the client and their relationship with the pet. Finding out how it happened. That was a great choice to get the client to remember all of the good times they had with their pet. A suggestion of guided imagery as a form of art therapy would help with this. Guided imagery is a therapeutic session of meditation, with either soft music in the background or silence. Your talking through to your client to get them to relax. You can probably guide them to an imagery of a happy time or place they had with their pet. I think this would help because every time your client is feeling sad and alone, they can use this tool themselves to relax and remember that happy time.
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