Mourning Companion Animals

Mourning Companion Animals is a guidebook for mental health clinicians searching for effective, compassionate resources to guide their clients through the often-devastating experience of animal companion loss. Chapters offer powerful and comprehensive strategies to heal animal companion loss based in sound, evidenced based, theoretical perspectives. The included author-generated inventory, the animal companion bereavement questionnaire, provides further assistance in clinician exploration of each client's unique bond with their lost companion. The book's content is the result of more than twenty-five of extensive work within the human-animal bond, clinical training in the referenced therapies, and application of major psychodynamic theories.

Susan Dowd Stone MSW, LCSW, is an adjunct associate professor at New York University's Silver School of Social Work and an award-winning advocate, speaker, author, and clinician whose lengthy career has focused on the human-animal bond.

1. The Experience of Animal Companion Loss 2. The Impact of Trauma in Animal Companion Loss 3. Considerations of Attachment Theory in Animal Companion Loss 4. Assessment Strategies for Animal Companion Loss 5. Psychodynamic Approaches to Healing Animal Companion Loss 6. Cognitive Behavioral Approaches to Healing Animal Companion Loss 7. Trauma Approaches to Healing Animal Companion Loss 8. Anticipatory Mourning in Animal Companion Loss 9. Legacy Creation Following Animal Companion Loss