Walking with Anticipatory Grief

A Live Workshop for Animal Guardians May 31st, 2026 · 1:00–2:30 PM EST
Hosted by Courtney Trethric & Mars Amante

What this workshop is:

Walking with Anticipatory Grief is a 90-minute live workshop designed to help animal guardians move through the anxiety and overwhelm of pre-loss. We won’t be rushing you toward acceptance, but give your grief somewhere to land right now, while your beloved companion is still here. This space is for anyone along the spectrum of grief; you don’t need a terminal or aging pet to join, maybe you’ve just feared a sense of loss since the very beginning of your journey with animal guardianship.

This workshop is built around the Pet Death Plan & Aftercare Workbook — a free & practical, tender framework co-created by Courtney and Mars to help you prepare for one of the hardest transitions of your life with clarity instead of chaos.

What we'll cover:

• Understanding anticipatory pet grief: what it is, why it's so disorienting, and why the people around you may not fully get it

• End-of-life logistics, demystified: from vet conversations to at-home care, making decisions before crisis mode sets in

• How to actually answer "Is there anything I can do?": building a real support framework so you're not navigating your needs in real-time while grieving

• Rituals and sacred space for the days before and after: how to honor this time in ways that feel true to you, whether or not you have a religious or spiritual framework

• Planning for the practical: subscriptions, reminders, routines, and the unexpected things that sneak up in the days after loss

• Somatic grounding tools for grief: gentle, body-based ways to move through the anxiety that anticipatory grief lives in

• Community grief as medicine: why grieving alongside others (even strangers) can ease the isolation that pet loss so often brings

What you'll walk away with:

Every participant receives a copy of the Pet Death Plan & Aftercare Workbook — an editable, 14-page Google Doc covering end-of-life planning, aftercare rituals, support-system building, everyday routines, and more. It's a living document. You can return to it as many times as you need. We even encourage you to share it with your partner or those closest to you.

Who this is for:

• Animal guardians supporting a pet through illness, aging, or a terminal diagnosis

• Anyone who has recently experienced pet loss and is still navigating the aftermath

• People who want to be prepared before loss arrives, so they aren't making decisions in the fog (even if their pet is currently healthy, young, and well)

• Grievers who have felt dismissed, minimized, or alone in their pet loss experience

Who's leading this:

Courtney Trethric is a pet loss and grief guide, herbalist, and Hellenistic astrologer based in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. Her years of experience in the veterinary world, combined with her own deep losses, ground her work in something you can feel: the kind of presence that doesn't try to fix grief, just walks beside it. She hosts Still Waters, a free monthly pet grief livestream every Friday at 9 AM EST, and offers private 1:1 support through The Cosmic Craft.

Mars Amante is a psychic healer, animal communicator, and medium whose work centers on the sacred bond between humans and their animal companions. Mars brings a spiritual dimension to grief work that meets you wherever you are — in faith, in doubt, or somewhere in between.

Together, they hold space that is warm, practical, embodied, and free of the kind of grief language that makes you feel more alone.