Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

10/04/2026

04/04/2026

There is something deeply human about walking alongside grief.

Yesterday, I supported someone who had made the deeply and painful decision to say goodbye to their dog, a companion that had been part of their every day life but now gone in a way that feels both quiet and deafening.

We walked together, side by side, not always needing to fill the space with words and where they used to walk the dog.

Sometimes grief doesn’t just want questions or answers, it simply wants room!

The decision to have an animal put to sleep is one of the heaviest acts of love a person can carry, but often it carries huge amounts of guilt, It asks someone to hold both compassion and heartbreak in the same breath.

To simply choose peace for another, while knowing it will fracture something within themselves is heavy, there is no neat way to make sense of that.

Out on our walk, the world kept moving, people passing, leaves shifting, life continuing in its quiet rhythm and that is just how it should be, however for the person beside me, time had altered.

Their dog was in every memory, every routine, every pause in conversation, for them grief wasn’t just sadness it was presence and It walked with us.

Walk and talk therapy can feel so gentle in moments like these, the movement offers something that sitting still sometimes cannot, a sense that even in loss, we are still moving forward, step by step, not away from the grief, but with it and allowing it to breathe, to settle, to rise again.

There was no need to rush their feelings or reshape their experience, for me what mattered was witnessing and holding space for the complexity, the love, the guilt, the relief, the ache because all of it belonged.

Because when someone loses a pet, they are not “just losing an animal" they are losing a relationship, a presence, a constant, and in many ways, a part of themselves.

And so the walk continued with lots of "what if's" and the weight of the decision that had to be made.
Sometimes, that is the work. Simply to walk beside someone while their world has changed, and let them know they do not have to carry it alone.

©2026 Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

And

Glebe Meadow Counselling

18/03/2026

Grief is often misunderstood as something we need to get through, tidy up, or somehow overcome, however grief is not something that has gone wrong and It is not a problem to solve.

It is the most natural, human response we have to loss, and he pain we feel is not because grief is “too much” it’s because the loss itself matters, deeply.

Grief is the process of learning how to live in a world that has been changed.

It is how we begin to carry someone (human or animals) with us when they are no longer physically here, it is how we slowly, often painfully, work out who we are now, without them beside us in the way we once knew.

It is also how we stay connected.
The love doesn’t just disappear, it shifts, it finds new expressions, new places to live, grief is or becomes part of that ongoing relationship.

When it starts to feel overwhelming when your thoughts are scattered, your body is exhausted, or everything feels heightened, that makes sense too.

Especially in the early days, grief can place your whole system into a state of acute stress, your brain and body are trying to process something enormous, something life-altering.

The physical impact is real, and it deserves understanding, not judgement.
Nothing about this is wrong. This is what it means to love deeply, to lose, and to keep going.

Be kind to yourself xx

©2026 Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

Glebe Meadow Counselling

09/03/2026

Yesterday my walk and talk therapy took me to a completely different part of England.

I have travelled before for around an hour and a half (with petrol and time covered), but this time the journey was just over two hours away.

She is mad you might think lol as It might sound like a lot, but sometimes supporting someone through grief goes a little further than distance, although I do not make a habit of travelling that far for obvious reasons 😉.

Thankfully the walk itself was on flat terrain, so my knee could manage it(this is my biggest worry at the moment)

What I really wanted to share is how much my walk and talk therapy is steadily growing.

More and more people are choosing to talk while walking, outdoors, side by side.
And for me there is something about being in nature, and for the client it can make it feel a little easier to open up and process difficult emotions.

Of course there are safety and practical considerations with this kind of work, but they are always thought through and managed carefully.

For me, it’s a privilege to support people in this way, and I’m grateful to see this gentle approach to pet bereavement continuing to grow.

©2026 Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

Glebe Meadow Counselling

20/02/2026

Emotions are not weaknesses, they are not inconveniences, they are primal, ancient, hard wired for survival.

They are the reason we move towards safety and away from danger, the reason we bond, protect, nurture, defend.
Without emotion, there is no connection, no learning, no survival.

Our dogs have this same emotional wiring. They feel fear, they feel joy, they feel anticipation, frustration, excitement, attachment.

Their nervous systems are built for survival just like ours, different species, yes but driven by the same biological need to stay safe and stay connected.

Where it becomes complicated is not in having emotions, it is in regulating them.

Even as humans, with language, therapy, self help books, neuroscience, and decades of personal growth conversations, we still struggle to regulate our emotional responses.

We still snap when overwhelmed, we still shut down when hurt, we still react before we reflect.
Emotional regulation is a skill, a lifelong one.

And yet, we often expect our dogs to manage theirs flawlessly without even thinking.

Just think about this, we ask them to live in a human world that makes very little sense from a canine perspective.

Loud noises, unpredictable strangers, restricted movement, social rules they did not evolve with.
We sometimes expect them to ignore instinct, suppress fear, contain excitement, and remain calm in situations that might feel overwhelming or confusing.

We are still learning to manage our own nervous systems, and we are the species that designed this world.

So perhaps the question is not, “Why is my dog reacting like this?”
Perhaps it is, “What is my dog feeling right now?”

Because behaviour is communication, in humans as well as animals, and behind every behaviour is an emotion trying to keep that animal or human safe.

When we shift from expecting perfection to offering understanding, almost everything changes.

Be kind 😇 always.

©2026 Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

Glebe Meadow Counselling

16/02/2026

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/15/losing-a-pet-grief-bereavement

16/02/2026

Finding a way forward after losing your fur baby, can sometimes be the hardest part after loosing them.

Losing a fur baby leaves a quiet emptiness that can be hard to explain, because they were not just pets, they were part of your routine, your comfort, and your everyday life, they were family.
When they are gone, even the smallest moments can feel heavy, coming home to silence, reaching for the lead, their favourite toy, or missing their familiar presence beside you.

Grief after pet loss is real and deeply personal, you may feel sadness, guilt, anger, relief, or numbness, sometimes all at once. Whatever you feel it is very valid.

There is no right way or timeline for grieving and finding a way forward doesn’t mean forgetting, it means learning to carry the love with you in a different way, and talking about them, keeping photos close, or creating a small ritual in their memory can help turn pain into connection.

Be gentle with yourself, healing isn’t about moving on, it’s about moving forward, slowly, with their love still part of your story, still very much in your heart.

©2026 Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

07/02/2026

He is only six months old.
And yet somehow, he has already made a home inside my heart.

I do not often share from my private life on here, because this space is usually about holding others, educating, witnessing grief rather than revealing my own.

But sometimes something feels important enough to step out from behind the professional lens.

I already share my life with three other dogs, and they are each deeply loved, deeply important, and firmly rooted in my heart.

This is not about one love replacing another, It never is.

He is tiny, still learning the world, still clumsy and curious and impossibly innocent, however from the moment he came into my life, something shifted, my days softened and my heart widened.

This little man does not know the role he plays, he does not know that his presence steadies me, that his little body curled up near me brings a sense of safety I did not realise I was missing.

He just is, and that is enough for me.
People sometimes say, “He’s so young,” as if love needs time to be valid, as if attachment must earn its depth, but love does not work like that.

Love happens in moments, and the bond is already so very real real.

And one day, the grief will be real too because that is the cost of opening your heart.

For now, I hold him, I watch him grow, I love him unconditionally.
I let myself love without restraint.

Because loving him fully, right now, is the point.

©2026 Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling

Glebe Meadow Counselling

10/01/2026

Why pet loss sometimes breaks me open more than human loss does.

This piece feels so vulnerable for me to write and to say, but it matters, very strongly.

Sometimes, when I sit with someone who has lost an animal, I feel it more deeply than when I sit with someone who has lost a person.

I have questioned myself about this, wondered what it actually is saying about me as a counsellor. However the truth is, the more I listen, the more I understand why.

When a person dies, there is usually space made for grief, the world slows, people ask how you are, there are at times rituals, words, and permission to fall apart.
When an animal dies, that space often is not there.
I sit with people who are heartbroken yet apologetic for their pain.

People who speaks silencely about their grief, who feel they have to justify why it hurts so much, will often say “It was just a dog, or an animal” “I know it sounds silly.”
And every time, something deep inside of me aches for them, because I see what that animal really was to them.
I see the constant presence, the unconditional love, the quiet companionship that asked for nothing and gave everything.
For many people, their animal was their safe place, their routine, their reason for getting up, and sometimes, they were the only being who truly saw them.

And then there is euthanasia.
Even when it is the kindest choice available, even when it is done out of love and care, I feel the weight my clients carry, I can't help this as I'm only human too.
The guilt, the doubt, the moment they said yes and felt something inside them fracture. They did not just lose their animal they deeply loved, they feel responsible for the end of a life they adored.

That kind of grief does not stay in the head, it lives in the body, in the chest that feels tight, in the house that suddenly feels wrong, in the silence where a heartbeat used to be.

I think pet loss undoes us because it bypasses language simply because there are no neat explanations, no comforting clichés that work, just love and absence.
And perhaps that is why it stays with me so unconditionally and personally and because this grief is so often unseen and unacknowledged.

10/01/2026

Why pet loss sometimes breaks me open more than human loss does.

This piece feels so vulnerable for me to write and to say, but it matters, very strongly.

Sometimes, when I sit with someone who has lost an animal, I feel it more deeply than when I sit with someone who has lost a person.

I have questioned myself about this, wondered what it actually is saying about me as a counsellor. However the truth is, the more I listen, the more I understand why.

When a person dies, there is usually space made for grief, the world slows, people ask how you are, there are at times rituals, words, and permission to fall apart.
When an animal dies, that space often is not there.
I sit with people who are heartbroken yet apologetic for their pain.

People who speaks silencely about their grief, who feel they have to justify why it hurts so much, will often say “It was just a dog, or an animal” “I know it sounds silly.”
And every time, something deep inside of me aches for them, because I see what that animal really was to them.
I see the constant presence, the unconditional love, the quiet companionship that asked for nothing and gave everything.
For many people, their animal was their safe place, their routine, their reason for getting up, and sometimes, they were the only being who truly saw them.

And then there is euthanasia.
Even when it is the kindest choice available, even when it is done out of love and care, I feel the weight my clients carry, I can't help this as I'm only human too.
The guilt, the doubt, the moment they said yes and felt something inside them fracture. They did not just lose their animal they deeply loved, they feel responsible for the end of a life they adored.

That kind of grief does not stay in the head, it lives in the body, in the chest that feels tight, in the house that suddenly feels wrong, in the silence where a heartbeat used to be.

I think pet loss undoes us because it bypasses language simply because there are no neat explanations, no comforting clichés that work, just love and absence.
And perhaps that is why it stays with me so unconditionally and personally and because this grief is so often unseen, unacknowledged and carried alone.

If you are grieving an animal and wondering why it feels unbearable, please know this,

YOUR pain makes sense.
YOUR love was real.
YOUR grief deserves space.
YOUR feelings matters.

And if you are a professional, like myself, or a supporter who finds this kind of loss hits differently, that doesn’t mean that you are failing, it means you are truly present with something profoundly tender.

Pet loss matters.

And so does the grief that follows.

Be kind to yourself, always xx

©2026 Glebe Meadow Counselling

Pet Bereavement Therapy by Glebe Medow Counselling