Giving Grief a Voice: How Emotional Expression Supports Healing

When someone loses a pet, grief can feel like an enormous, tangled weight sitting in their chest. It can be hard to know what to do with that kind of pain especially in a world that doesn’t always recognize how deeply we bond with our animals.

As a veterinary professional or crematorium staff member, you see that bond every day. You see the way a person looks into their pet’s eyes during those final moments. You hear the tremble in their voice when they say goodbye. And you often witness something most people don’t: the silence that follows the overwhelming weight of what now? This is where emotional expression becomes not just helpful, but vital. People need a way to give their grief a voice. They need somewhere to place the pain so it doesn’t eat them from the inside out. But many don’t know how to do that, or they worry their sadness is “too much.” That’s where we, as a community, can gently step in not with solutions, but with suggestions and space. Some people express grief through talking. It might be with a friend, a partner, a therapist, or even their vet. Just saying things out loud “I miss him so much,” or “I can’t believe she’s gone” can help soften the edges of grief. Even if the words are messy. Even if they don’t make sense.

Others need a quieter outlet. Journaling is a powerful and private way to process pain. It doesn’t have to be poetic. It can be raw, angry, or full of scribbles. It’s not about writing for anyone else it’s about making sense of feelings that have nowhere else to go. Encourage clients to try it: writing letters to their pet, keeping a grief diary, or just jotting down what each day feels like.

And for some, expression comes in color, shape, and sound. Art, music, photography, crafts these can all become sacred containers for grief. Clients might create a scrapbook of their pet’s life. Paint a memory. Plant a garden. These aren’t just distractions, they’re rituals. They’re ways to keep love alive while the pain slowly transforms.

As professionals in this space, you don’t have to prescribe these tools but you can gently offer them. You can validate the need to grieve out loud. You can normalize that pain needs movement. And you can remind your clients that whatever they’re feeling, they’re not alone and there are ways to carry the grief without letting it consume them.