Legacies of Love: A Workshop of Healing
for Those Who Have Lost Their Animal Loved Ones

Objectives:

In this four-session healing pet loss workshop you will have an opportunity to:

• Honor your animals by memorializing their life story and your relationship, in both images and words
• Acknowledge and express the fullness and truth of your love for your animal, and the full experience of your loss
• Increase your understanding of disenfranchised grief and complicated grief
  and how they may be effecting your healing
• Explore the implications of how your personality type effects your grief process, how to allow yourself permission to experience and express your grief with your natural personality preferences, and how to deflect pressure from others who expect you to express your grief from their personality preference lens.
• Increase your understanding about how unresolved grief from the past influences current loss
• Complete self-assessments regarding the physical impact of loss, the wide range of normal emotional reactions to loss, and how cultural and gender expectations spiritual beliefs may be impacting your grief
• Learn a model of conscious grief healing that supersedes the limited and outdated stages of grief model
• Learn the difference between coping and healing, why you need both, and practical tools for both
• Practice techniques to calm overwhelming feelings such as guilt, anguish and depression to bring
  relief from suffering
• Identify the mutual gifts and lessons of the relationship—the legacies left to us by our animals which transcend physical death—and ways to integrate these into our way of being
• Identify and embrace any lessons and growth emerging from the loss itself

Content and Purpose:

Those of us who are blessed to love and be loved by animals know the unparalleled joy and fulfillment that comes from animals living in our hearts and lives. Once we experience a profoundly deep connection with animals, there is no turning back. Animals and their love stay in our souls, once we’ve let them in. And we are better for it, more complete, more whole, more compassionate, and often transformed. In loving so much, we open ourselves to an exquisite, rewarding intimacy, but also to inevitable searing pain when we lose them. When our deeply beloved animals die, the hole left in our hearts and in our physical lives can be devastating. Our hearts break with the heaviness of grief. We may feel empty, as if we are no longer whole, but somehow fractured. The knowledge, information, insights and guidance in this healing workshop will help you restore your sense of wholeness.

To face our grief and work through it in order to heal is an act of courage. We need support to garner this courage to journey through such loss.

This in-depth yet very personal workshop was designed to enable your courage and to bring you loving support and practical tools to help you heal your heart and experience greater peace. As a participant in this class, you will be gently and lovingly provided with an opportunity to express your grief, understand your grief, explore many strategies to cope with and heal your grief, and identify and find comfort from the mutual gifts and lessons of the relationship—the legacies that transcend physical death.

Though the class encompasses the concepts from the audio book Legacies of Love™, there is far more opportunity through the numerous and diverse exercises and presentation of material in the class to receive practical and more in-depth help for the the healing of your heart.

You may be interested in this additional on demand teleclass if you are anticipating the loss of your beloved animal: Animal Hospice from the Perspective of the Veterinarian, Animals and Their People

Testimonials

I got a much better sense of how I can help myself reconcile feelings of guilt, and still honor my animal’s soul and life
The material from this healing pet loss workshop will be read over and over again….as needed! The exercises were general enough to be applicable to everyone and to whatever stage of grieving we are at, yet specific enough to allow us to make them personal. The handouts were great, including the outline at the beginning and end of each set – this helped provide a sense of where all the information fits. Various quotes were thoughtfully placed throughout, and they were very appropo for the material. I got a much better sense of how I can help myself reconcile feelings of guilt, and still honor my animal’s soul and life. I also got a much deeper understanding of the word and meaning of “legacy”. Teresa presented all of this with such love and sincerity. She is in a class all of her own, and is a very special gift to all of us and the animals of this planet. I cannot say enough good about this class. Teresa is very gifted and intelligent, a rare combination. I loved every bit of what she taught, and I am still digesting a lot of it. 8 yrs after losing my cat, I still continue to process and learn.   

~ Alison K, Maryland

I found a level of healing that I don’t think I would have gotten to without the class. 
I appreciated the complete honoring of animals and animal loss as equal to human loss. This provided a framework to go deeply into the exercises and my own grief. I learned about layers underlying the emotional pain that I have felt since the losses. Some I was somewhat aware of, others were just barely conscious. The class brought me clarity about areas that I need to work on for myself. And it gave me a chance to honor these wonderful animals in new ways and see all of the amazing gifts they brought to me.  The exercises gave me a new perspective on grief, new ideas and language for looking at the healing that I need to do. I think especially helpful were the exercises on looking at unresolved issues from the past and looking at things my animals gave me that I want to learn to give myself.   

~ Lesley H, Vermont

I’ve gained tools to handle current and future grief
This class helped me to understand what it is to actually do grief work and not to be passive, stuff it and just wait for the intense pain to subside. I can also see how past grief has hindered me and ways to resolve the grief I’ve never faced. Hearing the issues others in the class have faced and feelings they have helped me to know that I’m not alone, not weird. Also I’ve gained hope about the life my past fur family members are still alive in spirit and that I can still get in touch with them if needed and for comfort. I have felt supported and able to express the pain and feelings I’ve had. I would also love to repeat this class in the future. I’ve gained tools to handle current and future grief. Things I liked most about the class were expressing myself in the heart paintings, the support of Teresa, the beauty of how others honored their pets, seeing the diversity of the species that were so loved and knowing that love doesn’t have a species limit, that love is love, and the feeling of peace that I found even though it’s painful to work through the process. Hearing how others connected with lost pets and the hope that I can possibly be sure of a future connection with Ben and other loved pets I’ve lost.  

~ Linda K, California

It helped me sort out appropriate and inappropriate guilt and helped me to release some of it
One the things of lasting value to me from this class is realizing how much I gave my animals and working through my feelings surrounding my loss. Parts that were most helpful: The Loss History Graph was eye-opening for me. Feelings I was not consciously aware of came up for healing. The questions to ask yourself when you’re feeling guilty were helpful to me. It helped me sort out appropriate and inappropriate guilt and helped me to release some of it. The What I’m Creating part of the last exercise helped me to find my voice.  The organization of the handouts was helpful and presentation in small doses, so no one part or exercise overwhelmed you. Use of art to express feelings was helpful. The use of personal stories to illustrate concepts was helpful.

~ Evelyn G, North Carolina

What a healing pet loss workshop experience! Amazing. Embracing. Loving. Enlightening. Never to be forgotten.
Teresa Wagner has a gift, which she is generous enough to share with the world. Not only does she convey love through her words, but through her voice and her mannerisms (yes, by phone). I was blessed to have had her come into my life. I know that I have much more work to do, but she put me on a wonderful path.   
~ Marlene B, New York

A very supportive space for exploring the pain of the loss and the possibilities of healing.
Teresa was wonderful and gave us excellent material to work on. She presents a wonderful balance of the emotional material and the spiritual material which is difficult to find anywhere else. It definitely provided a very supportive structure for me to begin healing around the loss of my beloved dog. It was too much for me to work on emotionally in the 4 weeks (while also having a challenging job) but it definitely gave a material to work on as I complete my process in my own time. The meditations Teresa let were wonderful. It was also wonderful to hear others share their stories. I liked the idea of imagining my dog talking about what gifts she had received from me.  
~ Sonia L, Virginia

I was grateful to participate
It was a beautiful experience to be with each other’s grief process and use some of the tools that Teresa offered us, along with the energetic support of the group. In the part on healing the deepest wounds, some of the work in the handout really helped me reveal a few core components of the grief. Having that aha experience was both a release and a relief. I was grateful to participate. I got to honor my own companions who have passed, along with being able to listen to, feel and honor the others in the group and their relationships. The most positive experience of this class was being with Teresa’s loving, compassionate presence.  
~ Julie C, Michigan