Grief & Loss

It's been a thought provoking and emotional couple of weeks after the loss of Penny.

I think as facilitators, we are a little overwhelmed with the impact our herd has on our clients. It can be a little daunting to feel the impact of their grief and wonder what questions we may be asked.

For me, each client's and families thoughts and feelings of Penny's death were very different. Some barely noticed or acknowledged her absence. Some felt very hard, but recovered quickly. Others wanted to talk about the death and really explore what happened and how Peggy responded. Others were more curious about how I am. Each persons response is valid for them and being fully open and curious with each client really helped each session.

This also meant "reliving" Penny's death multiple times. Sharing our horses in the work we do, we think about the positive impact but this other side, which is another positive but in a different way can be very exposing for us facilitators and this is why we need our own support network during these more vulnerable times.

I was concerned about how I would handle this "reliving" as I'm normally quite private with my highs and lows. Professionally we are taught to "bracket" our personal thoughts and feelings and not bring ourselves into the clients time but I shared. When a client approaches with a posy of flowers and tells me they are so sad about Penny, I just shared in that vulnerability and we were grateful for the impact the little mini with the selfless love had on our lives in the short time we knew her.

I am also grateful for sharing the grief and loss of my clients and their families. ❤️🐴