People sometimes ask me how I became interested in animal end-of-life care and energy healing. It’s a bit of a long story, and it certainly wasn’t something I had planned.
For years, I owned a completely different business. Eventually, I reached a point where I wasn’t feeling fulfilled anymore. I kept thinking there had to be something else I could be doing.
One day, I came across an animal death doula certification program. Something about it caught my attention, and I felt drawn to explore it.
That decision led to more education in animal end-of-life care, grief support, and chaplaincy. But several months later, an experience with a boa constrictor named Eros would take my interests in another direction.
The Animal Who Changed My Perspective
Eros came to me from a situation where his needs hadn’t been adequately met.
He had an untreated respiratory infection and was already showing signs of respiratory distress. He was missing a small piece of his tail, and his enclosure lacked appropriate heating, lighting, and access to water. There was also a large crack down the front of the enclosure where his previous owner’s dog had reportedly tried to get to him.
Before agreeing to take him into my care, I asked to meet him.
When I arrived, Eros was clearly stressed. He was moving quickly and erratically, almost as though he were searching for an escape.
I brought him home, and he needed quite a bit of veterinary care in the beginning.
But something else caught my attention.
Looking at Stress From an Animal’s Perspective
Almost immediately after I brought Eros home, his frantic behavior stopped.
He wasn’t moving erratically anymore. He was calm and relaxed.
That change made me start thinking about stress from an animal’s perspective.
We talk a lot about how people carry stress in their bodies. We recognize the effects of prolonged trauma and how those experiences can affect our nervous systems. We even have somatic exercises intended to help people work through those experiences.
But what about animals that have been living under chronic stress for an extended period of time?
How do they recover from those experiences? How do they regain a sense of safety and balance?
I was already studying Reiki at the time, but Eros made me want to understand more about how animals respond to prolonged stress and what might help support their well-being.
So I started reaching out to other animal professionals.
Finding a Different Approach
I spoke with an animal behaviorist, another Reiki practitioner, and several other people I thought might help me better understand what I was observing.
I wanted to explore what else might contribute to an animal’s sense of safety and well-being.
Eventually, shamanic practice came into my awareness.
Something about that approach resonated with me, so I pursued additional training. From there, my education and practice continued to evolve.
I originally wanted to help animals approaching the end of their lives. But I began to realize that I also wanted to support animals through other significant transitions.
Animals experience changes in their environments, illnesses, losses, rehoming, and other situations that can affect their sense of safety and well-being.
Those experiences matter, too.
My work gradually grew to include non-medical end-of-life guidance, animal chaplaincy, grief support, Reiki, and shamanic animal energy healing.
These practices serve different purposes, but they’re connected by my interest in the well-being of animals and the relationships we share with them.
Why I Do This Work
Looking back, I never could have predicted that an animal death doula certification would lead me here, or that a boa constrictor would play such an important role in shaping my perspective.
But Eros helped me look at animal welfare in a broader way.
He reminded me that caring for animals involves more than meeting their immediate physical needs. Their environments, experiences, relationships, and sense of security deserve our attention, too.
And through my work with animals and their caregivers, I’ve come to appreciate even more deeply how much these relationships shape our lives.
The relationships we share with animals are important. They deserve to be recognized, honored, and supported through every stage of life.
That’s what Bridging the Gap is about.
To learn more about my work, visit www.bridgingthegap.care.