Episode 22- Transforming Veterinary Work-Life Balance Through Mindfulness

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In this week’s episode

• Authentic Leadership in Wellbeing
  Chloe shares the importance of listening and gathering feedback from veterinary teams to create meaningful wellness initiatives, rather than relying on generic, “tick-box” exercises.
• Wellness as a Necessity in Veterinary Practice
  As pressures in veterinary medicine grow with rising client expectations and pet ownership, Chloe emphasises how prioritising physical and mental wellbeing is vital for preventing burnout and improving team resilience.
• Transformative Power of Yoga and Meditation
  Chloe discusses how yoga and meditation can positively impact sceptics and beginners alike, offering practical ways to manage stress and improve mental health in personal and professional settings.
• Future of Wellness in Veterinary Medicine
  Wellness practices will play an increasingly pivotal role in the veterinary profession, addressing the mental health challenges of a fast-evolving industry.

In this engaging episode, Jack Peploe welcomes Chloe Hannigan, founder of VetYogi. Chloe Hannigan discussing the transformative power of wellbeing in veterinary teams, offering insights on leadership, yoga, meditation, and the growing importance of wellness practices in the profession.

Transcription

Jack Peploe:

Coming up on modern veterinary practice,

Chloe Hannigan:

I still think there’s a long way to go in terms of prioritising wellbeing and mental health within the veterinary profession. I think there’s a lot more that we could be doing, and I think a lot of that stems from the fact that when we’re training as vets or vet nurses and we’re really passionate about the animal welfare side of things, and even our training is so intense and kind of all encompassing, it’s really easy to equate being a vet or being a vet nurse to who you are. And really it should be more about what you are and then who you are as a person is so much more than just being a vet or just being a vet nurse. But I think because our identities are often tied up in what we’re doing for a job, if we have periods of time where we’re struggling or it’s not quite going to plan, or we’re facing really hard time in practice, it can be so hard not to take that personally.

Jack Peploe:

Welcome to the Modern Veterinary Practice Podcast. I’m your host and veterinary IT expert, Jack Peploe. In this episode, I’m thrilled to welcome Chloe Hannigan to the podcast, Chloe’s a veterinary professional and the founder of Vet Yogi, a platform that combines veterinary expertise with the transformative power of yoga and meditation. We’ll dive into how Chloe’s personal journey inspired her to integrate holistic wellness into the veterinary profession, the challenges she’s faced, and the tangible benefits these practices bring to mental and physical health in the demanding world of veterinary care. Whether you’re a seasoned vet or just curious about the intersection of science and mindfulness, this episode has something for you,

Chloe Hannigan:

It’s lovely to be here speaking with you, Jack. My name is Chloe, and I am a vet and the founder and director of Vet Yogi. So, I qualified from the RVC in 2012 and have been fortunate enough in my role as a locum to work all over the world, mainly the uk, Australia, and other Cook Islands. So I’ve worked probably in about 30 plus practices at this point. So I have a lot of experience of working with lots of different teens and kind of just kept seeing the same sort of problems and things crop up. And those issues that I was seeing with amongst my colleagues were also becoming apparent with myself. And those physical mental health problems really drove me to train as a yoga teacher because my own yoga and meditation practice was helping me so much that I thought if I can actually get qualified in this and I can share it in a way that is evidence-based and realistic for my colleagues to access, then we might be onto something. And that was back in 2017. And since then we’ve added a whole host of different things to Vet Yogi, and I am also joined by a team of other lovely yoga teachers who are part of the vet community as well. And yeah, that’s pretty much where we’re at the moment.

Jack Peploe:

Cool. Well, Chloe, I mean, you nearly lost me at the point of saying that you worked in the Cook Islands. I’m extremely jealous there. But anyway, I’m so excited to have you on the Modern Veterinary Practice Podcast. I thought today, given your experience, we could dive into the enriching world where veterinary science meets holistic wellness. So I’m really, really pleased to have you on the podcast covering this topic now, can I just ask, what was the main reason for you integrating yoga and meditation into practice and how do you balance these two passions?

Chloe Hannigan:

Yeah, so as I said, most of us, the majority of us, when we qualify as vets, it’s often in our early to mid twenties. I know some people do train at later to date, but I found myself in my mid twenties suffering with a back injury because when I first qualified, I was doing mixed practice. So I was doing a wide variety of clinical work, and I barely grazed five foot four and thought it’d be a good idea to wrestle cows and things and ended up with a back injury that really knocked me for six, to be honest. And it took away that feeling of invincibility that I’d kind of had. That kind of comes with youth. And so I had to work quite hard having been someone who was very sporty, very athletic, very flexible to suddenly being someone who couldn’t even touch their knees when they bent over.

So that was a real shock. And then along the way, even through vet school and things, I think again, this is something that probably quite a lot of the veterinary audience can relate to. Mental health challenges do crop up. So I’ve been quite open with the fact that I’ve had depressive episodes, I’ve had quite severe insomnia at certain points of my life, and I really found that the more I was practicing  yoga meditation, the healthier I was feeling and recovering from injuries, trying to build resilience whilst you are still working in a stressful field, but dealing with mental health challenges, it actually really bloody. So I think for me, yoga went from being just kind of a hobby or practice that I was doing once or twice a week to actually a life-changing habit, mainly when I was living and working out in Australia. And the key difference there was that obviously I was on the other side of the world from most of my friends and family, so I’d removed myself from that support network because of the time difference.

If I’d had a really bad day, I couldn’t just phone home or phone a friend and speak about it because it would be the middle of the night for them. So I really had to look at ways of dealing with the stresses and challenges of working as a vet often by myself. And that’s where time on my yoga mat and time spent in meditation really helped me. And I just thought if it was helping me, and when I say that when I first tried yoga as a 16-year-old, I absolutely hated it. It was a load of nonsense. So I thought if someone like me can be convinced that this is actually a really powerful practice, then maybe I’m the right kind of person to bring it to other scientifically minded veterinary people who might be a bit skeptical at first just as I was. So that’s kind of how it all began as a personal practice, and then it’s an idea to share it with colleagues.

Jack Peploe:

That’s very cool. And being that you sort of had firsthand experience, how do you think cultural attitudes towards wellbeing and mental health in the veterinary field of since you obviously began practicing the yoga and meditation?

Chloe Hannigan:

I mean, yeah. So obviously at the time that we are speaking, I’ve been qualified 12 years now. So we’ve seen really positive shifts. I think during that time, I still think there’s a long way to go in terms of prioritizing wellbeing and mental health within the veterinary profession. I think there’s a lot more that we could be doing. And I think a lot of that stems from the fact that when we’re training as vets or vet nurses and we’re really passionate about the animal welfare side of things, and even our training is so intense and kind of all encompassing, it’s really easy to equate being a vet or being a vet nurse to who you are. And really it should be more about what you are and then who you are as a person is so much more than just being a vet or just being a vet nurse.

But I think because our identities are often tied up in what we’re doing for a job, if we have periods of time where we are struggling or it’s not quite going to plan or we’re facing really hard time in practice, it can be so hard not to take that personally. And so I think more needs to be done sort of at the training level as well, I think. And I think that is happening in the vet schools, in the veterinary nursing educational establishments. So I think getting right in there at the time of student selection and training is going to be hugely beneficial. And then I think we’ve seen a real shift as well in the way that we work in terms of there’s a little bit more flexible working on offer. Again, I think we could be doing better with that, but we’ve seen a shift from, even when I first qualified, it was really common that you would be working and then you’d be doing full weekends on call as well with maybe a half day off the next week or whatever. We have seen more of a shift to daytime practice versus nighttime and out of practice. So there’ll be pros and cons in that as well. But things have moved quite quickly, and I’m hoping that we can build off that momentum to keep them moving forward in a positive way. Because let’s face it, with our mental health issues, our recruitment issues, our attention issues, we don’t really have time to waste.

Jack Peploe:

I mean, we’ve spoken about, or you’ve spoken about some ideas around some educational system changes and some leadership based changes, but what advice would you give to a veterinary professional who may be are skeptical about the benefits of yoga and meditation or think they might not have, for example, time?

Chloe Hannigan:

Yeah, time is a big one. Time and energy are usually the biggest pushbacks that we get when we’re trying to engage people. And the thing I refer back to is, and it’s freely available out there for people who are proficient in reading scientific studies and papers, like the evidence is there when we’re talking about getting benefit from a practice such as yoga, meditation, regularity, consistency is the key. It’s not usually about duration or time. So there are studies out there that show benefits starting from as little as the fourth time that you practice. And if you keep that going, even just five to 10 minutes regularly done can be beneficial. So we’re not having to talk about dedicating hours of your life to a yoga practice if you don’t have the time for that. The other thing I would say, and I’m guilty of this myself, I definitely don’t want people out there thinking I’ve suddenly got it all figured out because I step onto my yoga mat.

That’s not the case. But one thing I think we’re quite guilty of is actually where we’re kind of willing to put our time, and we actually do have some free time, but we might end up inadvertently it scrolling social media or binge watching Netflix or something. So the thing with habits is the hardest part is establishing them. Once you’ve established them and you’ve identified those areas or those places in your schedule where you could spend five minutes meditating on a regular basis, it becomes much easier. And one of the key things that we try to do at Vet Yogi, because all of our teachers, myself included, still work in practice, so we’re still trying to do our own personal practice around those busy schedules as well as help people get on the map themselves, is we try to make it accessible. So having little classes that are five minutes or less suggesting ways that people can actually build breath work or meditation into their working day so that it doesn’t just become another chore that you have to tick off your to-do list, but it’s going to be something that actually helps you and benefits you.

There are so many ways that we can build yoga meditation into our busy lives. It just takes a little bit of effort initially, but once you get going, it becomes easier as with any habit. A

Jack Peploe:

Hundred percent. And can you elaborate on that? I mean, could share an example of how yoga and meditation is made specific to the job roles within the practice?

Chloe Hannigan:

So we provide, the classes that we teach, we provide bespoke content. So for instance, I’ve recorded a class on there for vets. That is for specifically after you’ve done a particularly brutal dental in dogs and cats because your neck and shoulders are going to be completely tied up after that and your hands will be really sore as well, and your wrists. One of our lovely nurse teachers, she’s recorded a fabulous class helping nurses to care for their knees because they’re kneeling down a lot to restrain the patients or handle the patients for our receptionists. We’ve got specific chair yoga type practice. We’ve got a lot of meditation content that’s helping people to deal with how we’re feeling after euthanasia or how we are feeling, having to bounce from delivering bad news to then going into a room and being excitable for people with a new copy, for instance.

So we’ve really nailed down what each role within the veterinary community could benefit from. So obviously there’s yoga, meditation content out there for everybody, but by applying it to these specific clinical situations or nonclinical but still veterinary related roles, we’ve been able to really create a bulk of content that people can hopefully build into their day. And then, yeah, one of the things I do as well is I go out and I deliver CPD talks about the scientific evidence behind what we’re practicing  and how it can actually be helping us on a physiological level as well. So I sort of read those papers so that you don’t have to waste your time doing that if you don’t want to. Not everyone wants to geek out on some yoga studies when we’re already trying to read veterinary studies, I suppose. But yeah, so don’t worry. We’ll do that so you don’t have to. But yeah, there are so many ways that we can tailor yoga meditation specific to vets, nurses, students, receptionists managers. Yeah, it’s been a really exciting way to get creative from our perspective, actually.

Jack Peploe:

That’s very cool. And so as a leader in obviously the NY yoga community, how do you mentor others to take on leadership roles in promoting wellness within their practice?

Chloe Hannigan:

So I think it does need to come from a place of enthusiasm to begin with. We have seen people just kind of have this wellbeing warrior title foisted upon them when they’re already juggling multiple things, and it’s just one more thing that they maybe have to coordinate. I think so much of leadership comes down to listening to what the people you are actually trying to serve need and want. And I think sometimes that’s where practices maybe get it a little bit wrong. And actually it was lovely collaborating with you and Eloise Jack on this series of articles that we put out about wellbeing and practice because one of the things that we kind of put across there was, if you are just putting on tick box wellbeing exercises for your practice team, yes, it’s better than doing nothing perhaps, but if you haven’t actually consulted the team that you are trying to serve and each veterinary team will be different, you might not actually be servicing quite a large proportion of those team members by just putting on something quite specific.

So leadership, I think is about gathering the feedback and listening to the people that you are trying to lead and seeing how can you actually help, what is it they want? And for some of your practice members that might be engaging with yoga and meditation. For others, it might be that they want an event, they can bring their families to their support network or whatever it is, but collecting that feedback, listening to it, and then acting based off what you are hearing rather than what you are thinking can sometimes be really helpful. And again, when we’re engaging with people at all the different events that we do, we’re constantly collecting this feedback from people as to what they need or what they would like to see within the profession. And then we try to respond to that as much as we can.

Jack Peploe:

No, that’s cool. And where do you see the role of wellness practices heading in the future of veterinary medicine?

Chloe Hannigan:

What do you mean? Sorry.

Jack Peploe:

So obviously it’s a very important thing, but do you see that it’s going to take more of a significant position at the moment? It’s definitely people are aware and they’re wanting to do more. Do you think that’s only going to increase?

Chloe Hannigan:

I think it is absolutely only going to increase because the other things that we’re seeing increasing alongside that are some of the challenges that we’re facing. So we’re seeing increased pet ownership in the UK and around the world. We’re seeing an increased expectation of the standard of veterinary care that clients expect to receive increased referral practices, increased gold standard, all these piling pressure and expectations on colleagues. Clients expect to have a first rate service in the practice, even in their small town and as they should, but that then adds a level of pressure and potentially can be detrimental to the team trying to deliver that if they’re not also being encouraged to look after themselves as humans, as well as veterinary professionals. So I think as the standard of veterinary care continues to rise and how fantastic it is that progress is happening, that other things are increasing alongside that, and if we don’t make prioritising our wellbeing happen alongside that, I think we’re going to end up in an even worse situation than we’ve been in historically with veterinary mental health.

Jack Peploe:

Yeah, no, a hundred percent. So to put a positive spin, I’m intrigued. What’s been your most rewarding moment in teaching yoga and meditation to fellow vets?

Chloe Hannigan:

Oh, there’s been so many. I personally get a real kick out of the people who were so skeptical or who maybe not even skeptical, but just had a bit of hesitation in trying yoga meditation or perhaps didn’t know where to start or didn’t know if it was for them as such, because I think there’s also a lot of social constructs around the type of person that does yoga and meditation in the western world, and seeing them, having them trust us with the start of their yoga and meditation journey and seeing them experience the benefits for themselves. Yeah, that’s one of my favorite parts of my job. If I’m teaching in person, I love seeing students at the end of the class how relaxed they are in that Shavasana or that final pose compared to the often sort of frantic energy that they’re with. So seeing that on an energetic level, I love that.

I love hearing feedback from people who’d never tried it before, who gave one of our classes ago who have now started incorporating yoga a little bit. I had a particularly lovely moment as well that was completely out my comfort zone because I don’t do a lot of baby yoga or parent yoga. But a few years ago when I was teaching at Well Vet event, they asked, would you mind doing a parent and baby yoga session? And I don’t do it a lot, but I was qualified too, and I thought, why not? There’s something else to do. And we had a baby in that class roll over for the first time ever, and that mum was absolutely buzzing, and I always remember that. So I just think these little special moments that we wouldn’t even necessarily think of as, I mean, obviously a baby rolling over is a big deal to the parent, but there are so many little milestones that we can reach for ourselves on our yoga mats that I think sometimes we don’t even acknowledge because in that world, it tends to be very much like go, go, go.

What’s next? What’s next? Something that I struggle with is actually being present in the moment and being like, oh no, this just happened. I really have to pull myself back from the future and the what next, and actually remind myself that even if it’s just something as simple as a yoga pose that I couldn’t do a year ago when I’m now maybe not even doing it fully, but I’m 50% of the way there, something like that. So there’s so much that being on our yoga map can actually teach us that we can then take off the map into our personal and professional lives.

Jack Peploe:

A hundred percent key disconnection. I think I’m going to have to do it myself, but Chloe, what a session. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable insights and experiences, which obviously not only have highlighted the importance of physical and mental wellbeing in our profession, but also offering those practical steps for incorporating these practices into our daily lives. So thank you so much. If people did want to get in touch with you, how can they go about doing so?

Chloe Hannigan:

Well? Thank you for having me. Yeah, people are always welcome to get in touch with us via our socials. We’re on the usual Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or X, whatever it’s called. It’s all just sort of vet Yogi, your finders. We have our website, obviously vet yogi.com, and then we have the Vet Yogi Collective, which is our yoga meditation subscription platform, bespoke for the veterinary community, and that is collective vet yogi do com. But yeah, just reach out. You can also send us an email and personally hello@vet.com, but we always love to hear from people. And of course, if you see us at the conferences or events, please do come and say Hello,

Jack Peploe:

Chloe. You’re legend. Thank you so much. What a session.

Chloe Hannigan:

Thank you, Jack. Recommended resources.

Jack Peploe:

Every week we ask professionals and experts to suggest a best business resource for our listeners. This week’s recommendation is from Mass Melis.

Mass Melis:

So for me, one of the best book I’ve ever read is actually never split the Difference from Chris Mo. It’s a fantastic book that tells you about negotiation, but on a wide range. He was a negotiator for the FBI, working on kidnap people and so on. Now he’s consulting several universities. It gives you really a different view on how to interact with people when you have to negotiate from small things to big things. Also on having your mail open and stuff like that. It’s mind blowing already.

Jack Peploe:

Coming up next week, we welcome Yannick Bloom, co-founder and CEO and Dr. Mike Mossop, co-founder and chief veterinary officer of Covet to the Modern Veterinary Practice podcast. Yannick shares his journey from building software at Apple to creating intuitive veterinary solutions. While Mike discusses his transition from clinical practice to developing a technology driven mobile practice, together they explore how AI is transforming the veterinary landscape, their experience with COT as an AI copilot, and the challenges and opportunities technology brings to the profession.

Yannick/ Mike:

Yeah, I think people often think of new products. They need to apply new technology as these kind massive mountains that are in front of them. It’s like I need to do this whole pile of things and completely change the way that I’m, if it’s in our case, the way I’m practicing or I need to change, they think about changing a PIMS and everything that comes with that. But not all technology is the same in that way. And I think often we really try to bullet that to pull it down, to take small steps, take simple steps, but then take them. Now you need to get started. I think a lot of people try to push it back. They think they need to change everything. And with technology, the great thing you can do very incremental changes. And so I’ll take the covid experience For us, obviously the big barrier is let’s try to make it as seamless and as simple to get started.

We don’t want any barriers to just be able to go. So you can go on the website, you can sign up, get started, and we say within five minutes you could walk into your next appointment with Covid in your pocket. So it’s not some kind of two week process. There’s no trial, paid trial or anything. It’s all free to get started. And so for us, it’s really start small. Even if you’re not even comfortable doing it in a real appointment, start with your colleague, right? Start in a break room and do a mock exam and see how it looks. And so I think whenever you feel something is too big or too complicated, make it a bit smaller.

Jack Peploe:

That’s it for this episode. All links and recommendations we talked about are in the show notes. Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast if you found it useful. In the meantime, thanks for listening and see you next time.