Supporting Veterinary Teams & Their Clients
Support/FAQ/Let’s Talk
Supporting Your Clients Through the End-of-Life Journey
A resource for veterinary professionals supporting animals and the people who love them.
You see clients at some of the hardest points in their animal's life.
A new diagnosis.
A difficult prognosis.
The gradual changes that come with aging.
The question of when it's time.
The final days.
The goodbye.
And the grief that doesn't end when the appointment does.
Your role is to care for the animal, provide medical guidance, and help clients navigate care decisions.
My role is different.
And that's where I believe we can work well together.
Where my work meets yours
I don't do what you do.
You see clients at every stage of readiness, including in crisis. You are the ones who perform the euthanasia. You carry a weight in this work that I don't.
My work happens in the space before, alongside, and after your door.
I support the person through the emotional and relational aspects of the journey, helping them understand what they are experiencing, stay connected with their animal, and find more capacity to be present through what can be an incredibly difficult time.
When we honour the different scopes we each hold, we build a fuller circle of support around every client and every animal facing this passage.
When can I support your clients?
My work begins before loss happens. It is in the senior years, the changes from aging, illness, diagnosis, approaching end of life, preparing for the final days, and after a loss.
These are many points along the journey where a client may need somewhere to slow down, process what's happening, and prepare for what may come next.
During the senior years
When an animal's needs are changing, and their person begins to notice that things aren't quite the same.
I can support clients when they begin to acknowledge the changes, understand anticipatory grief, and explore how they can be present with their animal during this stage of their life.
After a diagnosis or during illness
A diagnosis can change how someone experiences every day with their animal.
I provide space for clients to process fear, uncertainty, grief and the emotional weight of what they have heard, while encouraging them to bring medical questions and decisions back to their veterinary team.
As end of life approaches
When clients are beginning to wonder what lies ahead, I can help them prepare emotionally rather than waiting until they are in crisis.
This can include exploring their hopes, fears, and concerns; preparing for the final days; and thinking about what a compassionate goodbye might look like for them and their animal.
During the final days and goodbye
I support clients as they navigate the emotional reality of saying goodbye.
This may include compassionate planning, helping them think through what matters to them and their animal, and supporting their capacity to stay present through the experience.
I don't make euthanasia decisions or provide medical advice. Those conversations belong with the veterinary team.
After the loss
Grief can bring relief, guilt, anger, sadness, numbness, confusion and sometimes feelings a person didn't expect.
I offer a place to process what happened and the relationship that remains important to them, without rushing them through grief or telling them how they should feel. But rather, I meet them where they are in their process.
What this can offer your clients
When someone is overwhelmed by grief or fear, it can be difficult to take in information, ask questions, or make thoughtful decisions.
I help clients make sense of what they're feeling, prepare for what's ahead, and find ways to stay present with their animal and themselves through it.
So when they arrive at your consultation, they may have more capacity to:
listen and take in information
ask the questions they need to ask
participate in conversations about their animal's care
communicate their concerns and priorities
stay present with their animal
process difficult information without feeling quite so alone in it
This doesn't replace the support you provide.
It gives the client somewhere to be with and process the emotional pieces of anticipatory grief that can be difficult to hold within a veterinary appointment.
What I do and what I don't
My work brings together professional animal communication, anticipatory grief and end-of-life grief education, and peer-to-peer support. I help clients better understand their animal's perspective, process what they are carrying, and find ways to stay present and connected through aging, illness, end of life and loss. Through animal communication, I share the animal's perspective, including what they may be experiencing, communicating, wanting their person to understand, and how they are experiencing their relationship and circumstances.
I also offer body scans, sharing what I perceive about an animal's physical, mental and emotional well-being from an animal-communication perspective. This can give pet parents another way to listen to and understand their animal. Sometimes what I share gives a client something they want to explore further with their veterinarian. They can then bring that information back into the conversation, allowing the client and veterinary team to look at the whole picture together and determine what, if anything, needs further exploration.
I do not diagnose illness, prescribe treatment, interpret veterinary tests, or replace veterinary assessment or care. A body scan is not a veterinary examination or medical diagnosis, and I encourage clients to bring physical or health concerns to their veterinarian.
My role is complementary: to listen to the animal, share their perspective, support the human through the emotional and relational aspects of the journey, and help strengthen the connection and communication between them.
I also don't make euthanasia decisions for clients. I can support them in preparing emotionally, exploring what matters to them and their animal, and planning for a compassionate goodbye, while medical decisions remain with the client and their veterinary team.
A little about me
Hana Mäkinen
Professional Animal Communicator & End-of-Life Grief Specialist
My work brings together animal communication, grief education, psychology, nervous-system-informed approaches and decades of experience in natural health and healing.
I graduated from the Gurney Institute of Animal Communication and completed the David Kessler Grief Educator Program. In 2022, I presented a RACE-approved webinar for IAAHPC veterinary professionals, Inviting a Deeper Human-Animal Bond During the End-of-Life Journey. I am a speaker at the 2026 IAAHPC Fall Virtual Conference: Understanding Attachment, Stress Physiology, and Anticipatory Grief to Support Client Communication in End-of-Life Veterinary Care.
My full background, training and experience are available here.
We don't have to do the same work to support the same client.
You hold the medical care.
I hold space for the emotional and relational journey.
Together, we can give clients more support around one of the hardest passages they may ever walk through with their animal.
A resource, not just a referral
I don't want this relationship to be about simply handing your client a name and sending them elsewhere. We can work together in several ways.
Share a resource
You can provide clients with educational resources about senior years, anticipatory grief, end-of-life preparation, compassionate planning and pet loss.
They can use these resources whether or not they ever work with me individually.
Explore Client Resources → Blogs → Online Education for Anticipatory Grief → Preparing for a Pet’s Passing Resource
Offer additional support
When a client needs more time to process what they're carrying, let them know support is available outside the veterinary appointment.
Learn About Individual Support → End of Life Animal Communication → Grief Support Session → Afterlife Animal Communication
Bring education into your practice
I offer educational sessions for veterinary teams and clients around anticipatory grief, the human-animal bond, end-of-life preparation and supporting people through the emotional realities of this journey.
FAQ
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I provide professional animal communication, including sharing an animal’s perspective and body scans, along with anticipatory grief and end-of-life grief education and peer-to-peer support. I work with people through the senior years, illness and diagnosis, end-of-life planning, final days and goodbye, and after a loss.
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My work is complementary to veterinary care. I don't diagnose illness, prescribe treatment, interpret veterinary tests, or replace a veterinary examination. I offer another way for clients to listen to and understand their animal while encouraging them to continue working with their veterinary team for medical care and decisions.
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That's okay. You don't need to practise animal communication or share the same framework I use to see value in supporting the human-animal relationship. My role is complementary to yours, and I respect the scope of veterinary medicine. I'm happy to explain how I work, what clients experience, and where I see the two approaches fitting alongside one another.
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A body scan is part of my animal communication work. I share what I perceive about an animal's physical, mental and emotional well-being from the animal's perspective. It is not a veterinary examination or medical diagnosis. What I share gives clients something to explore further with their veterinarian.
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I encourage clients to bring physical or health concerns back to their veterinary team. Sometimes, something I share may prompt a client to ask a question or make an observation they want to explore further with their veterinarian. The client and veterinary team can then consider that information alongside the animal's clinical history, examination and other veterinary findings.
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There isn't one particular point in the journey. Support can be helpful during the senior years, following a diagnosis or illness, when anticipatory grief begins to surface, when clients are preparing for their animal's final days or goodbye, and after a loss.
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No. My work isn't only about preparing for euthanasia. Many clients seek support much earlier, when they first notice changes in their animal, receive a diagnosis, or begin to recognize that the relationship is entering a different stage.
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No. I don't tell a client whether or when they should euthanize their animal. I can help them process what they're carrying, listen to their animal's perspective, prepare emotionally, and think about what matters to them and their animal and is respectful of their relationship. My communication and education is information for the client to support them in their decision and timing. Medical assessment and euthanasia decisions remain with the client and their veterinary team.
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I provide dedicated time for clients to slow down and process what they're carrying. I help them make sense of their experience, understand anticipatory grief, prepare for what may be ahead, and build ways to stay more present and connected with their animal. My approach is peer-to-peer and educational rather than mental-health therapy.
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With the client's involvement and permission, we can bring information from our animal communication work back into the veterinary conversation. My intention is not to create a separate path of care, but to support communication and collaboration between the client, their animal and their veterinary team.
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There are several ways. You can share client resources, connect a client with individual support, invite me to provide education for your team or clients, or simply meet with me to learn more about my work. A formal referral relationship isn't required.
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Absolutely. You don't need to refer a client first. We can simply connect, talk about your practice and the kinds of challenges your clients are experiencing, and explore whether my work could be a useful addition to the support you already provide. Go to the Let’s Talk section and submit your info.
Let’s Talk
If you're a veterinarian or veterinary professional interested in building a more connected support system for your clients, I'd be happy to talk.
Whether you're looking for a resource for a particular client, want to bring education to your team, or simply want to learn more about how I work, there's no referral or commitment required. Sometimes it starts simply with a conversation about what your clients are experiencing, what your team is holding, and where additional support might fit.
Let's start with a conversation.
