Approaches to Treatment

---

In addition to her clinical training and over 25 years of clinical practice, Dr. Curotto has competencies and/or expertise in the following therapeutic approaches. These approaches can be tailored to your specific needs and preferences, helping you navigate the unique challenges of coping with the loss of a beloved pet and ultimately find healing/growth, acceptance, and love again.

Traditional grief counseling involves providing a safe space for individuals to express their feelings and work through and grow around their grief, often through talk therapy.  As a pet loss specialist and grief educator, I can offer a comprehensive and compassionate approach to helping you understand and navigate your feelings and identify a path forward. 

We utilize evidence-based treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), to help clients address their symptoms and develop long-term coping skills.   CBT allows individuals to identify and modify negative thought patterns and behaviors associated with pet loss to promote healthier coping strategies.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of psychotherapy that helps people process traumatic memories and other distressing experiences. It's based on the idea that traumatic memories can get "stuck" in the brain, causing emotional and psychological difficulties. EMDR aims to change the way the brain stores these memories.  

Dr Nancy Curotto is a certified EMDR psychologist (Standard Protocol, Early Intervention Protocols including Group-Traumatic Events Protocol [G-TEP], Recent Traumatic Events Protocol [R-TEP], and the Expanded Traumatic Events Protocol [E-TEP]) and can tailor your virtual sessions to your needs using a virtual platform: Remote EMDR https://www.remotemdr.com  to facilitate constructive healing/growth. 

EMDR for pet loss focuses on resolving traumatic memories (sudden or painful decisions like hospice and euthanasia) and the emotional distress that can come with grieving the loss of a beloved pet. 

EMDR can help you process and grow around these difficult emotions. 

Here's how EMDR can support grief following the loss of a pet.

1. Addressing Unresolved Trauma: Pet loss, especially in unexpected circumstances, can leave a person with unresolved trauma. EMDR enables individuals to process traumatic memories and associated emotions more healthily, thereby reducing the emotional burden associated with them.

2. Accessing Core Grief: For many, the loss of a pet can evoke feelings of guilt, helplessness, or profound sorrow. EMDR helps access and process these core emotions, allowing individuals to experience relief from their emotional distress.

3. Targeting Specific Disturbing Images or Beliefs: EMDR can help individuals reprocess specific memories, like the last moments with their pet or disturbing images surrounding the pet's death. Reducing the emotional charge associated with these memories enables more peaceful and treasured memories, as well as a reduction in guilt or regret.

4. Facilitating Growth and Acceptance: EMDR can help shift negative beliefs about yourself in relation to the pet's death (e.g., "I should have done more" or "It's my fault") to healthier beliefs (e.g., "I gave my pet a good life"). This reprocessing can foster growth and acceptance.

5. Restoring Positive Memories: By reducing the negative emotional charge associated with the loss, individuals can reconnect with positive memories of their pets, focusing on the joy and companionship rather than solely on the pain of the loss.

Concurrent or simultaneous pet loss-focused EMDR can be a powerful therapeutic approach for couples who engage in therapy to address the shared and individual impacts of pet loss.

Here are some key benefits that couples may gain from participating in this process together:

1. Strengthened Emotional Bond

· Couples often experience the loss of a pet differently; however, by processing their grief side by side, they can create a shared understanding and emotional intimacy.

2. Improved Communication

· EMDR can help process emotions that are difficult to express in words. As each person works through their Grief, they can better articulate their feelings, which fosters open and healthy communication.

3. Processing Shared Trauma

Losing a pet can be traumatic, especially if the pet is a long-time companion. Couples may share this trauma and process it in different ways. 

4. Reducing Unspoken Tensions

· Grief can sometimes lead to tension within a relationship, mainly when partners cope differently. One partner may appear to move on quickly, while the other may struggle for an extended period, leading to frustration or resentment. EMDR can help to reduce these unspoken tensions.

5. Supporting Each Other's Healing Participating in EMDR allows each partner to witness the other's Grief. This can create a sense of mutual support, as both individuals can better understand each other's feelings and needs during this difficult time.

6. Resilience Building

· Working through or growing through Grief in a structured and supportive way, such as with EMDR, can enhance a couple's ability to cope with future losses or stresses. The skills and emotional resilience they develop during this process can strengthen their relationship. 

7. Personal Healing in a Shared Space

· While each individual may have their journey through Grief, concurrent/simultaneous EMDR allows them to do so in a way that does not isolate one another. Each person can process their feelings, but in the presence of their partner, promoting a sense of being "together" in Grief."

8. Reduced Grief-Related Symptoms

 When couples go through this process together, they may notice a reduction in grief-related symptoms, not just individually but also within the dynamics of their relationship. This can lead to a more peaceful and supportive home environment as both partners heal and grow.

Participating in support groups with others who have experienced pet loss can provide a sense of community and validation for one's feelings. Peer support groups offer and provide support between people who share everyday experiences, including those who have experienced loss or grief, and have been shown to reduce grief symptoms and increase well-being and personal growth among the bereaved. There are also benefits to peer support groups, including increased personal development and a greater sense of meaning in life. Internet-based peer support programs are a growing trend that is partly beneficial due to their accessibility.

SFBT focuses on identifying practical solutions and coping strategies to help individuals adjust to life without their pets and move forward in a positive direction.

Our stress management sessions are designed to teach clients practical skills and strategies to manage stress more effectively. We help clients identify the sources of their stress and develop coping mechanisms to reduce its impact on their daily lives.