Rekindling: Compassion Fatigue Solutions for Animal Workers

It seems noble to believe that taking care of others is more important and necessary than taking care of yourself. But it's not true. You have to question your limiting beliefs that result in you feeling exhausted, drained and burned out.  In this episode we explore: -how the opposite of what you believe may in fact be true -how taking on more than you can handle doesn't in fact HELP others, but H...

Some emotions like anxiety, fear, overwhelm and helplessness tend to hijack both our mind and our physiology. Our body goes into "survival mode" and often we can't access our higher, reasoning brain in those moments. So the ability to adopt a different thought or mindset may not even be within reach, until we settle our bodies.  In this episode I will teach you how to ground yourself (aka get back...

When we're feeling sad, angry or stressed, we tell ourselves that the wine, ice cream or "retail therapy" makes us feel better. But it doesn't. I've done "all the things" to try and escape my feelings and would tell myself that food/wine/weed made me feel better but it wasn't the food/wine/weed that made me feel better.  In this episode I share with you exactly what IS making you feel better when...

Is it selfish to work on yourself? To invest your time, energy, effort and/or money into improving yourself? Is "me time" selfish? These are all the questions we may find others or ourselves asking as it relates to personal development. I think it's a good question to ask. And my answer...I will reveal in this episode so listen in! To join my biweekly e-inspiration emails, text REKINDLE to 66866. 

I've never been one to play by the rules! National Veterinary Technician week is October 16-22 but I'm jumping the gun with my guest this week Anna Santos. Anna holds a BS, is an RVT and a LVT and has worked in veterinary nursing for over 20 years.  Her varied background demonstrates all that is possible in a career such as veterinary nursing.  We talk about all the things in this episode: -the im...

You're really good at fixing animals by relieving their pain and suffering. You help them live good lives or have a good death so it's natural that you'd want to fix people too. It's natural that you'd want to help them feel better and have better mental and emotional health but this isn't your responsibility nor are you capable of doing this for others. Negative emotions in others isn't a problem...

Your Core Values are the fundamental beliefs, principles and guidelines you live your life by. We all have them whether we are aware of them or not. But consciously identifying them will help you in all areas of your life. At work, in all of your relationships and in decision making.  And it's equally important to choose Core Values for your organization, veterinary practice, rescue, shelter or ev...

Today's episode is all about the impact you make for animals. How often do you stop and think about it? I asked a question to my Monday and Friday email list recently. I asked them to send me a reply to this... I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that what I do for animals matters because... The responses blew my mind and I wanted to share some of them with you today so you can connect with other...

Many people who work with animals say to me "I don't feel the highs and the lows anymore, I just feel numb." That is what can happen when we disconnect from our emotions, we don't feel anything. But life is about feeling the highs, the lows and everything in between. In this episode: -I'll share why your work with animals often results in you feeling numb -How to actually feel your feelings -How g...

Psychological change doesn't happen overnight. But we wouldn't want it to because we'd miss the learning in it all. It's fair to say that the path to my own psychological growth has been a rocky one. I've failed more times than I can count, I've not kept my word to myself thousands of times and I've engaged in behaviors I wanted to stop and then hate myself over and over and over again. Your story...

Today's guest is Dr. Lauren Smith, relief veterinarian and founder of the Vetitude. I recently read a blog post of hers that made me reach right out and invite her on the podcast. The post was titled "Let's Not Forget About the Human-Animal Bond" whereby she exposed a mindset that the client's needs are secondary to the pet's. She makes the case that what is good for the client is most often also...

It's not that it's hard to say "No". Everyone can do it but what's hard is the feelings that come in the aftermath of saying no. Particularly guilt. But guilt doesn't actually come from saying no, it comes from what we think about saying no. When you change what you tell yourself about saying no, it becomes easy. When you reassure yourself that saying no is not only ok but necessary, you become so...

I've taught about feelings a lot on the podcast but today I'm teaching something I haven't taught before. Emotional health doesn't happen by accident, it requires our intention and learning how to process negative emotions.  I'll guide you through that giving you an example from my current life that I've been managing a lot of anxiety around.  Check out the Feelings Wheel here  .

My guest, Debbie Boone is a Veterinary Practice Management Consultant focused on Communication, Team building, Employee Engagement and Customer Service issues. She offers custom consultation services for veterinary practices who desire to improve their practice and their life. No judgement, she just helps.  She has over 23 years" in clinic" experience managing AAHA small animal veterinary practice...

What if instead of talking negatively about someone (behind their back) we talked positively about them and made the most generous comments, assumptions and acknowledgment? Not only would that be so fun, you'd feel like a million bucks afterward.  In this episode I'm going to share with you what I mean by Gossiping Well. Give it a try! 

Today my guest is Dr. Lynn Hendrix, Certified Animal Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian, VIN Hospice/Palliative Medicine/End of Life Care Consultant, President and Co-Founder of the WVPMO and Author of "Animal Hospice and Palliative Medicine for the House Call Veterinarian".  This is a rich episode filled with gems like: -why she chose the path of animal hospice and palliative care as a vete...

Taking care of yourself can't be an afterthought but it requires two things: attention and intention. Attention to what is going to be or could be challenging and what you're going to do about it (intention).  We often get blindsided by situations, trips or events that we didn't think through and then find ourselves bamboozled with lots of anxiety, stress and overwhelm.  I want to encourage you to...

Louise Hay is arguably one of the first self-help teachers dating back to the 1970's. This week I was scrolling through her bestselling book "You Can Heal Your Life" when I stumbled on a chapter entitled "Resistance to Change".  In my work as a life coach I see a lot of resistance. We resist what the clients are doing, how are co-workers are behaving, what are boss says and even things in the worl...

In this episode I interview LVT Kimberly Shaffer. Kimberly has 20 years of experience working in vet med and we riff on all of it!  -How low-stress handling isn't just a benefit for the patient but also for the staff.  -What has changed in vet med in the past 20 years -Sources of burnout for vet techs -The enormous impact veterinary professionals make in the world It's a great convo! Check it out....

Our emotions and behaviors can affect each other positively or negatively. We call this emotional contagion and it turns out that it's pretty normal to be affected by others mood, facial expressions and body language. As social creatures our brains are designed to pick up on and even mimic others. This is great when we are surrounded by happy unicorns. Where it gets problematic is when we are surr...

Compassion fatigue is an imbalance. Too much secondary trauma and not enough opportunity or resources to offset it.  My guest in this episode is In Home Euthanasia veterinarian Dr. Amanda Doran. She has a passion for combining science, art, mysticism and spirituality in the most amazing way.  We have the most delightful conversation. Enjoy!  You can find our more about Amanda, her Artist Way progr...

Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Sound like a pipe dream? Well maybe it's more available than you think.  In this episode I teach you the 4 Steps to Patience and what "Practicing the Pause" means.  Patience equally relates to how we interact with others as well as how we relate to ourselves.  To join my email list please te...

When you work with animals you can have many unconscious beliefs about their lives. Especially ones that relate to the impact you believe  you have over their unintentional death.  Beliefs like "If I make a mistake, an animal could die" are not helpful to think and yet we all nod and agree when someone says it.  In this episode I explore these unhelpful unconscious beliefs, how they lead to perfec...

It's not what happens, it's how you treat yourself. We all have seasons in our lives. Times we are growing, times we are raising kids, times we're expanding in our career, times we're grieving and times we are thriving.  Some seasons are more challenging than others and knowing how to care, support and nurture yourself during the season you're in is everything.  In this episode: -you'll learn why...

This episode is not about judgment of clients and their judgment of you. This episode is about the judgment that's coming from "inside the house", if you will. The judgment we have of each other in the vet community.  Humans are judgmental. But I want to raise your awareness to it and I want to ask you to recognize it in yourself, in your practice or organization, with your colleagues and I want t...