Emotional Steadiness
Their presence helped regulate your nervous system: the walks, the routine, the warm weight next to you. Without them, steadiness is harder to find — grief here is physical, not only emotional.
A course from Dr Rachel Megahy
You're not "just" grieving a pet. You're grieving one of the most important relationships in your life.
A six-module course for the grief that people around you don't seem to understand. Work through the guilt, steady the days, and find a way to carry your bond forward — at your own pace, with nothing to keep up with.
Written and taught by Dr Rachel Megahy, Chartered Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years' NHS and private experience, specialising in traumatic pet loss. Author of Pet Bereavement and Grief.
One-to-one therapy with me is £120 a session. This is the same framework, at your own pace, with lifetime access — for a little more than a single session.
£147 · lifetime access
30-day guarantee: if the course isn't right for you, email me within 30 days for a full refund. No forms, no questions.
Start the GENTLE Path — £147By continuing you agree to the Terms of Use, including losing the 14-day cancellation right once access starts. The 30-day guarantee still applies.
Developed by an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist
Built on evidence-based approaches — CBT · Compassion Focused Therapy · Interpersonal Therapy · continuing bonds
30-day money-back guarantee
People say things like "it was only a dog", or "at least it wasn't a person", or "you can always get another one".
And so a grief that is genuine, and physical, and everywhere in your house — the empty bed, the lead by the door, the silence at teatime — has to be quietly carried, often alone.
This kind of grief has a name: disenfranchised grief. It is grief the world doesn't quite give you permission to feel. It doesn't mean your loss is smaller. It means you've had to grieve without the room to grieve.
This course gives you that room.
Why I made this
For over twenty years I've sat with people at some of the most painful points in their lives. Some of the hardest grief I see is for an animal, and it's often the grief people feel least able to talk about.
Many of the people who come to me have spent months believing something is wrong with them for hurting this much. Nothing is wrong with them. They've lost a relationship that held their days together, and the people around them haven't quite understood that.
One-to-one therapy isn't available, affordable or right for everyone. So I've taken the framework I use in my clinical work and shaped it into something you can do at home, at your own pace, whenever the day allows.
— Rachel
You are not alone in this
Is this you?
Most people who take this course arrive with some version of these.
- It's been months and you still cry without warning
- You keep replaying the decision at the vet, looking for the moment you got it wrong
- You haven't been able to move the bed, or the bowl, or the lead by the door
- You feel foolish for grieving this hard
- People at work think you should be over it by now
- You're dreading the walk you used to do together
- You're wondering whether wanting another one makes you disloyal
This isn't the right fit if
- you're looking for live sessions or one-to-one therapy — this is guided self-help you work through alone
- you're in crisis or having thoughts of harming yourself, in which case please contact your GP or the Samaritans on 116 123
- you want a quick fix rather than something to work through at your own pace
The Structural Role Model
Why this hurts so much
Your pet wasn't one thing in your life. They held four structural roles — and when they died, all four went at once.
Daily Structure
They shaped the shape of your day — feeds, walks, greetings at the door. When they go, the scaffolding of ordinary life goes with them.
Sense of Role
Being their person was part of who you are. Caring for them gave you a role, so grief reaches into your sense of self, not just your feelings.
Presence
Your pet was a genuine attachment figure — a source of safety, comfort and daily companionship. What you are missing is their presence: a bond, not a possession.
Six modules, at your pace
The GENTLE Path
A gentle, structured way through — one letter at a time. Nothing to keep up with. Nothing you can fall behind on.
Each module applies established psychological approaches to pet bereavement specifically — this is structured guided self-help, built with clinical rigour.
G
Ground
Steady your body and your day when everything feels unreal.
E
Expect
Understand what pet grief actually is — and why yours is not too much.
N
Nourish
Care for yourself in small, doable ways while you grieve.
T
Tend
Meet the guilt, the what-ifs, and the end-of-life decisions with compassion.
L
Let
Let the waves move through you, rather than bracing against them.
E
Embrace
Carry your bond forward, and find a place for them in the life ahead.
Also included
Three bonus modules
Included at no extra cost, for the situations that need something more specific.
When a child is grieving
Supporting children through the loss of a family pet, at different ages and stages.
When grief gets stuck
What to do when months have passed and nothing has shifted.
Grief across lives
For teenagers, neurodivergent grievers, and older adults, whose grief often looks different and gets less room.
A taste of the course
Listen to a lesson first
This is a five-minute guided practice from Module 1, narrated by Dr Rachel Megahy. Have a listen before you decide anything.
Guided audio practice
A place to put this down (Module 1 guided practice)
0:005:00
What's included
Everything is yours to keep, at your own pace.
- 33 core lessons across the welcome module and the six GENTLE modules, plus 9 bonus lessons in three bonus modules — 24 of them narrated video lessons
- 18 written Deep Dive lessons — over 21,000 words of reading, roughly 1,200 words in each
- 7 guided audio practices
- 15 interactive exercises, including your personal Role Check-In journey timeline and six exercises drawn directly from the book
- A private digital workbook with printable pages, exportable as a keepsake PDF
- Lifetime access — including all future additions
This course is new.
It's built on the framework in my book, on the model I use in clinical practice, and on the same approaches I'd use with you one-to-one. What it doesn't have yet is a wall of testimonials — so there's a 30-day money-back guarantee instead. If it isn't right for you, email me and I'll refund you, no questions asked.
Accredited member, Association of Pet Bereavement Counsellors
HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist
Registration no. PYL17840
The path is here whenever you're ready to start.
Six modules. Lifetime access. A 30-day money-back guarantee. You can begin tonight, or in a month — nothing expires and there's no schedule to keep.
One-to-one therapy with me is £120 a session. This is the same framework, at your own pace, with lifetime access — for a little more than a single session.
£147 · lifetime access
30-day guarantee: if the course isn't right for you, email me within 30 days for a full refund. No forms, no questions.
Start the GENTLE Path — £147Access begins immediately after purchase. By buying, you agree to the Terms of Use and understand you lose the 14-day right to cancel once access starts. 30-day money-back guarantee still applies.
By proceeding to checkout, you agree to our Privacy Policy.
Your guide
Dr Rachel Megahy
Rachel is a Clinical Psychologist who has spent her career sitting with people at some of the most tender points of their lives. Pet bereavement is not a side interest for her — it is her clinical specialism, and the shape of her practice.
- · HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist
- · Accredited by the Association of Pet Bereavement Counsellors
- · Author of Pet Bereavement and Grief: A Clinical Psychologist's Guide to Healing After Pet Loss
- · Trained in CBT, Compassion Focused Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), EMDR, and Schema Therapy
Not ready for the course?
Start with the book
Pet Bereavement and Grief is the gentler starting point — something you can read slowly, at your own pace, with no schedule to keep.
Six of the exercises in the course are drawn from it, so nothing is wasted if you decide to go further later.
See the book in the shopQuestions people ask before starting
Lifetime, including anything I add later.
Nothing expires and there's no schedule — start when you can.
No — it's structured guided self-help built on clinical approaches. It doesn't replace one-to-one therapy, and I'll point you toward that if you need it.
Grief work can surface things, so every module is designed to be stopped and returned to. There's a 30-day refund if it isn't right for you.
No. Every written exercise is optional, and there's nothing you have to submit or share with anyone.
Yes, this will help. The Ground and Tend modules are used by people going through anticipatory grief, and Tend covers end-of-life decisions directly.
No. Most people do, but you can go straight to Tend if guilt is the thing keeping you awake.
Each lesson takes five to fifteen minutes. Nothing is live, nothing is scheduled, and there's no group to join.
Yes — plenty of people arrive years later.
Narrated video lessons, guided audio practices and written lessons in your browser, on any device.
Yes, please do. The GENTLE Path was built to be something you can pass on with confidence. It's written by a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, grounded in evidence-based approaches, and clear about when someone needs more support than a self-help course can give. If you'd like cards or a link for your practice, get in touch.