you don't need to feel this way while working with animals
🐾
you don't need to feel this way while working with animals 🐾
See a difference in how you feel in one hour.
It all happens in 60 minute sessions and workshops designed to support animal shelter staff and volunteers, veterinary teams, and rescue groups. The goals are to make space for acknowledging and processing, for you to be heard, and to walk away with tools you can count on so you feel less overwhelmed during a shift and afterwards too, when the day is done.
You’re probably thinking, “i’m too busy.” or, “Why DOES wellness support even matter?” Or, “it won’t change anything anyway.” I understand! But here's how you and your team will feel after working with me…
✓ FEEL ENERGIZED
Consistent self-care results in less burn out and higher retention among our people. By having a safe space to be heard and by using the breath to tend to ourselves, my strategies will help your staff and volunteers feel more energy, sleep better, lower their blood pressure, and be able to better handle difficult situations and intense pressure.
✓ FEEL HAPPIER
Through simply learning how to be aware of your breathing and by having someone witness your grief over a pet that was put down, the loss of your own pet or a foster, or the constant demands that come up when working in animal care, you will feel happier, more relaxed, and more peaceful both inside and outside of work.
✓ FEEL HEARD
Having an outlet for your feelings to be acknowledged and that welcomes all of you reduces tendencies towards eating junk food, overconsumption of coffee, substance abuse, getting stuck in negative thought loops, constantly crying about the animals, taking too much sh*t from people, living without boundaries, or becoming addicted to stress. Unhealthy coping patterns often cause more problems than the one they’re trying to alleviate, and we don’t want that.
✓ FEEL GOOD
Those who work with animals deserve time to feel good, to intentionally carve out moments for joy and nourishment. Just like we provide for the animals we work with. Recalibrating our nervous system (the thing that can make us feel calm and safe) requires adequate space and support.
✓ FEEL CONNECTED
Animals don’t rely on words. They rely on energy. By consistently tuning, uplifting, and aligning our own energy, how much more can we be there for animals? How much more can we bring to them if we are filled up? How might this help their stay with us, or their adoption, or their treatment? How much can we elevate the vibe at the animal shelter or veterinarian office itself because we’ve done the work to feel whole in ourselves?
HOW TO GET STARTED:
01
Browse my Services
It’s difficult and BRAVE of you to even consider focusing on yourself so you can feel better and help more animals. Learning 5-minute techniques for your daily routine can make the difference.
02
Let’s make sure it’s a GOOD fit
Book a FREE 15-min call and let’s figure out what’s best for you. I’d love to learn what your current challenges are.
03
Time to Make It Real
Let’s set up a safe, private space for sharing, processing, and breathing so you and your fellow animal lovers can do the important work you do with more joy, peace, and wellness.
What exactly is breathwork?
A self-care tool
I know the term “self-care” can feel ick but TRUST ME! Breathwork is a practice of intentional breathing that is basically magic when practiced correctly. I think of it as active meditation, for when our minds are like German Shepherds who just need a job to do in order to chill! And then we can let the body feel and heal.
What it looks like…
Breathwork sessions vary from paying attention to your natural breath to focusing on continuous breathing patterns that, when sustained, can energize us or relax us. Through your breath, you can release, recharge, or access something you desire.
Altering the way we usually breathe shifts the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body (nerdy but important!), which means it feels different than we’re used to, which opens the door for new experiences or ideas or insights. This can get you out of your head, detached from anxiety, and re-focus your attention on what you DO WANT. Breathwork helps clear energy and recognize emotions.
After breathing together, you’ll have the skills to feel less stressed out and more grounded, both at work and at home.
WHat exactly is A grief Guide?
Reflective, creative, and imaginative
Did it just get uncomfortable in here, or is it me?
We don’t talk about grief enough, or recognize it, or give it room. When grief doesn’t get the space or empathy it deserves, it stays in our body. There are so many different ways to grieve and so many reasons to grieve - it’s not about right or wrong, and there is no timeline. Pet loss, unprocessed trauma and wounds, as well as the inherent pain that can come from working with animals, all of this can lead to a sense of loss that is not validated by society, but still affects us.
How this works…
During grief support, you talk, and I listen. I’ll ask questions, and you’ll share what you feel comfortable sharing. We also don’t have to talk. We can create art, do crafts, or write during our sessions. When we’re creative, we free up the mind. However you want this to go, it is TOTALLY up to you. Our sessions will always be a judgement-free zone where everything stays between us. You are free to explore, engage, and discover new meanings through your grief.
You can change your energy, your mood, and thus your life.
Your animal shelter, rescue group, or veterinary staff and volunteers can expect to feel better as soon as they start consistently practicing wellness tools. It doesn’t take very long for teams to experience the difference. By having somebody who gets it to talk to regularly and learn self-care tips from, animal lovers can acknowledge, process, and express feelings and thoughts, work through grief, get in touch with themselves, and cultivate more joy and serenity. Over time, this constant care for themselves will move them into who they want to be and how they want to live.
My support of your team will lead to more awareness, greater communication, increased productivity, stronger teamwork, enhanced mood, and an all-around elevated work environment. We can become the higher vibe we want to be around, that more people will want to be around, and this will benefit animals as well as us. It’s not either take care of the animals or ourselves - it’s got to be both. Our wellbeing is interconnected.
this is scary to share, but it’s true…
You probably know this, but current data suggest that animal welfare workers suffer from higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety, all risk factors that lower the quality of one’s mental health. Substance abuse is a common amongst staff and volunteers.
The rate of psychological distress among veterinarians has been steadily on the rise since 2019. Their veterinary team members suffer too. A CDC study shows vets as 2 to 4 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. This is a serious problem that needs addressing.
It’s like being on a plane. Just as we’re told in the case of an emergency, put your own mask on first before you help someone else, the same thing applies here. You and your team must make sure you’re able to function before you can help others. We cannot give what we don’t have.
“I felt relaxed and realized that my intention or what I needed was time to just be me in my space, check in with myself or take stock of my body. I absolutely got that, the time to center myself and focus on me.”
- Alexis, from Austin Pets Alive!.
GET YOUR FREE COPY!
3 MINUTES TO GO FROM OVERWHELM TO CALM
Download this exercise and find some relief in your day to day animal care life. If you struggle to feel present, energized, or relaxed, this tool will give you the guidance you need.