Bill Benson, LMFT, LPCC
Psychotherapist, and Animal Emotional Bond Expert, and Pet Bereavement counselor
Bill Benson, Licensed Marriage, Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor specializes in Pet Bereavement, crisis management, and Animal Assisted Therapy. Through witnessing, discussing, and celebrating animal nature, Bill helps individuals, couples, and families work toward healing and emotional stability.
Clinician Bill Benson’s counseling practice is firmly established in the personal and professional link between pets and their people. He has spent his 20+ year career developing a therapeutic strategy that uses this strong bond to help people heal. He celebrates the lives of furry family members and helps their human companions learn from them, grow with them and cope when they transition.
Bill is a licensed clinician (Board of Behavioral Sciences) and a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Bill is on the Advisory Board of The Peacock Foundation and former long-time Board Chair of this non-profit, which helps at-risk youth heal through the therapeutic interaction with animals.
Bill is a sought-after speaker, having presented on the therapeutic use of companion animals for the disabled (Los Angeles Times Housing Rights Center symposium) and on the support that animals provide the terminally ill (Pets are Wonderful Support conference). He is a frequent lecturer for the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association and aids veterinarians with Pet Bereavement and crisis management concerns. Bill is a recurring expert panelist for Huffington Post webcasts.
Bill Animal Assisted Therapy work has been the topic of a broad range of media placement, including Fox Television’s Good Day LA, CBS’s Woman 2 Woman, The Travel Channel’s Battle at the Beach and NBC’s The Tonight Show. He has also been nationally profiled in several major newspapers, Internet websites and call-in radio shows.
Bill (and dogs) maintain a private psychotherapy practices in Hollywood and Burbank, California.