Your Client just told you that their pet dog was run over by a car. The client begins to cry. What do you do?
If a client comes to me and tells me that their dog was run over by a car, I would try to give comfort by talking to them. To be honest I’m not really a dog lover but I would try to so show empathy and understand their feelings so they can feel that is not a waste of time coming to me.
I pretty much understand how people get so attached to dogs and love them as if they were one of them so I would help him trying to understand that it does hurts to lose a dog that way but there isn’t anything that they could’ve done to prevent it, maybe the dog was too playful and didn’t pay attention to what was to come but of course it isn’t the client fault that this happened, I would tell them to just focus on the good times that their dog was there to keep them company, to play and all those moments that they spend having a good time. I would also tell them that it is understandable to be hurt because losing a dog hurts as much as losing a person when is lost but life continues and maybe they can adopt another dog to help them out, it will not be the same but it will be a gesture from them.
Your response is great, you show a lot of empathy for the client by trying to understand how much love a person can have for a dog even though you yourself are not much of a dog lover. A creative arts therapy i would suggest for this client is journaling. Instead of the client just thinking about the good memories of their dog, they can write them down too. Which could be a great outlet because they will then always be able to remember the memories of their dog by reading what they wrote when they get sad from time to time. I think Journaling can be a great outlet for grief because it is another way for them to let out their emotions and share their memories.
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