Option 1: Emotional & Well-being Support for Teams [In-Person]
Join the waiting list
Our schedule is filled for the moment, as we co-create magic and care with animal care teams.
If you would like to work with us in the future, please email us at care@compassionatecreatures.ca.
Click on the email link to open a prepared waitlist response.
To provide dedicated emotional and psychological support to both staff and clients within animal care settings, addressing the challenges of animal caregiving, grief, compassion fatigue, and workplace stress. This role aims to strengthen organizational culture, foster staff retention and resilience, and improve client experiences when clients are part of the care network. As a practitioner, I offer a unique blend of clinical empathy through knowledge in grief support and trauma-informed care, have built-in veterinary fluency for understanding team dynamics and clients needs, and growing knowledge in mental health and well-being literacy through Master Social Work training and veterinary support knowledges.
Purpose:
Eligible locations: Teams located within Southern Vancouver Island, such as Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney, View Royal, Esquimalt, Colwood, Langford, The Highlands, Metchosin, Sooke.
Scope of Practice/Core Services:
-
Offer informal check-ins and emotional debriefs post-euthanasia, emergencies, or client conflict.
Facilitate team resilience check-ins or group wellness sessions.
Provide education (compassion fatigue, empathic strain, burnout, moral distress/conflict), resource referrals, and individualized support strategies.
-
Be present for euthanasia appointments or emotionally difficult visits, offering calm, compassionate support.
Help clients navigate grief, guilt, and decision-making.
Develop grief resources and communication tools for use by the team.
-
Create and implement wellness protocols (e.g., break policies, distress checklists).
Design wellness toolkits, internal communication support, and morale-boosting initiatives.
Evaluate emotional risks and identify systemic improvements in workflow and staff care.
Additional Info for Teams:
-
Increased staff retention & morale:
By reducing compassion fatigue, moral distress, and burnout, longevity and personal value are supported.
Enhanced client experiences:
Compassionate presence leads to deeper trust and loyalty, which can be directly offered through this role and built through staff engagement with mentorship.
Positive reputation for the clinic:
Taking the step to support unique staff and client needs demonstrates leadership in modern ethical animal care.
-
Staff experiences:
We acknowledge that and understand why animal care/ veterinary medicine can be an emotionally distressing profession for all staff members (Campbell et al., 2025). Importantly, we need to acknowledge that stress and trauma are individualized, and a response to our bodies unique experience of events. There is not a "one-size-fits-all" wellness and support system for every person - we may require individualized care in addition to collective care through employment and community.
As a profession, veterinarians score higher rates of burnout than physicians, and are more likely to think about and attempt suicide than non-veterinarians. (Volk et al., 2020)
Non-vet team members commonly experience vast stressors, including higher psychological distress (potentially double that of veterinarians), financial stress, and burnout, even when there are feelings of pride in the work, and wellbeing varies by position (Volk et al., 2024).
Veterinary teams continue to recover from the demands and psychological impacts of COVID-19, which led to reduced team wellbeing overall and impacted team members personally and uniquely outside of workspaces (Volk et al., 2022).
There are correlations between healthy work cultures and enhanced health, including reduced burnout and psychological distress (Volk et al., 2022).
Organizational care:
Wellness programming benefits both staff and business: Although a positive return-on-investment (ROI) can take time to establish, it's benefits include mitigating the rising cost of productivity and retention losses, driven by reduced staff wellness. The starting ROI sits at a median of $1.62 for every $1 spent on mental health resourcing (Chapman et al., 2019).
It is an organizational responsibility to ensure healthy and safe workplaces for employees. This includes physical, emotional, and psychological health and safety. Animal care settings are more highly exposed to stress and trauma-based circumstances, so it’s increasingly important to ensure programming and staff care strategies are in place and supported.
Client experiences and loyalty:
Compassionate client communication helps to centre the human-animal bond and develop supportive client relations (Knesl et al., 2016).
Poor euthanasia experience is a leading reason for clients choosing to not return (Sheridan & Tottey, 2017).
Resources:
Campbell, M., Hagen, B. N. M., Gohar, B., Wichtel, J., & Jones, A. Q. (2025). Don't ignore the tough questions: A qualitative investigation into occupational stressors impacting veterinarians' mental health. The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne, 66(3), 274–287. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40070946/
Chapman, S., Kangasniemi, A., Maxwell, L., & Sereneo, M. (2019). The ROI in workplace mental health programs: Good for people, good for business. Deloitte. https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-zone3/ca/en/docs/services/consulting/2024/ca-en-about-blueprint-for-workplace-mental-health-final-aoda.pdf
Knesl, O., Hart, B. L., Fine, A. H., & Cooper, L. (2016). Opportunities for incorporating the human-animal bond in companion animal practice. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 249(1), 42–44. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.249.1.42
Sheridan, L., & Tottey, H. (2017). A compassionate journey part 3: the client experience. The Veterinary Nurse, 8(2), 66-73. https://www.theveterinarynurse.com/content/review/a-compassionate-journey-part-3-the-client-experience
Volk, J. O., Schimmack, U., Strand, E. B., Vasconcelos, J., & Siren, C. W. (2020). Executive summary of the Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study II. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 256(11), 1237–1244. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.256.11.1237
Volk, J. O., Schimmack, U., Strand, E. B., Reinhard, A., Vasconcelos, J., Hahn, J., Stiefelmeyer, K., & Probyn-Smith, K. (2022). Executive summary of the Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III and Veterinary Support Staff Study. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 260(12), 1547–1553. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.22.03.0134
Volk, J. O., Schimmack, U., Strand, E. B., Reinhard, A., Hahn, J., Andrews, J., Probyn-Smith, K., & Jones, R. (2024). Merck Animal Health Veterinary Team study reveals factors associated with well-being, burnout, and mental health among nonveterinarian practice team members. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 262(10), 1330–1337. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.24.03.0225
Option 2: Critical Incident Group Debriefing
Stay tuned!
More information coming soon.
Option 3: Difficult Circumstances Support & Conversations [Virtual]
To provide animal care team members with one-on-one relational and empathy-based support that arise when navigating the challenges of animal care work.
Includes:
all experiences of animal care work: burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, guilt and shame-based circumstances, etc.
all settings for animal care work settings: clinical veterinary medicine, animal sheltering, animal-based research, animal training and grooming, zoos, rehabilitation, etc.
Purpose:
Create a space for animal care team members to share their fears, challenges, and thoughts about their work and care settings.
Co-create and navigate options for supportive care that suits the team member’s needs.
Scope of Practice/Core Services:
Note to caregivers:
It is important to me that you are aware of what I can offer. My role is supportive and non-clinical at this time. I cannot advise clinical methods to support long-term care for emotional complexities.
If you are looking for guidance on navigating sustained and complex experiences or extended mental health support, finding the proper support is important.
GST/HST will be calculated added at the time of checkout.
We recognize that affordability and financial access can shift over time and influence how we are able to support ourselves. If cost is currently a barrier, let’s connect. I’m open to creating a supportive arrangement that works for both of us.
If you are able to pay full price, please know that it directly supports the sustainability of Compassionate Creatures and helps expand the services I can offer to others.
Not finding the support option you're looking for?
Please reach out to see if we can bring your vision to life.