Lumiere inc (TheBlueHealer.org)

I'm Dr. Zoë Lumiere, a somatic therapist. I spent two decades supporting people through grief and childhood trauma before I went through my own pet loss — my dog Ellie, six months old, neuro-disabled, who passed in my arms after two months together. That grief broke me open in a way twenty years of clinical work hadn't prepared me for.

Pet grief is so misunderstood. It's so much harder than most people recognize, and so rarely given the space it deserves. That's why I now dedicate my practice entirely to it. Because when it's met fully, it becomes one of the most incredible journeys for healing — not just the loss itself, but inner child wounds, and so much of life underneath it.

Most support for pet loss stays in the mind — advice, timelines, platitudes. My approach goes to the body. I work somatically, meeting the guilt, the sadness, and the missing where they actually live, in the nervous system, not in logic. When that part of us finally feels held, the grief moves. Guilt softens into compassion. And often, the connection to the animal doesn't fade — it deepens, becomes a felt presence rather than an absence.

What I see, over and over, is that the grief was never only about the animal. It was also touching something older — a place someone never felt fully safe or fully loved — and the animal had been the one being who loved them without condition. Healing the grief, done this way, heals that too.

I'm the author of The Blue Healer, free to read online, and I hold free Live Sessions and an 8-week group Journey for people ready to do this work together.