Please stop stressing, you're scaring the cats

Most people didn’t come into veterinary work expecting it to feel easy. But they also didn’t expect it to feel relentlessly heavy.

You train to handle pressure, responsibility, and uncertainty. And you do.You cope. You get through the day. You keep going.

And yet, somewhere along the way, the job can start to feel more draining than rewarding. 

Even on “good” days your mind is always scanning ahead to outcomes, possible emergencies, difficult clients and the never-ending appointment list, so you never actually get a moment to enjoy it.

Veterinary practice doesn’t just feel stressful. It trains your nervous system to stay on high alert. To stay switched on.

The result is a stress response that never quite stands down, even on “good” days, so parts of the job you used to enjoy feel tense or rushed.

This CPD day isn’t about managing time better or adding another thing to your to-do list.

It’s about understanding why stress shows up the way it does in vet practice, and learning how to respond to work differently so it doesn’t feel so stressful AND you get that enjoyment back. Without losing your edge.

Most vet professionals know they should “stay calm”.

But since when has telling someone to calm down actually helped?!

When things get busy, that instruction just becomes another stick to beat yourself with. You notice you’re stressed, judge yourself for it, and then carry on because there’s no time to do anything else.

The truth is, most people in vet practice aren’t actively managing stress at all. They’re getting through the day. Counting down to the end of the shift. Waiting for the weekend. Hoping the next emergency doesn’t land at the wrong moment.

There’s rarely space to stop and actually work out what might help the stress. Other things are always more important.

This is where mindfulness comes in, and this CPD day.

Not as one more thing to remember, but as a way of training your attention and nervous system so you can meet pressure differently as it’s happening.

Mindfulness isn’t about avoiding stress or pretending things are calm. It’s about learning how to work in a busy, demanding day, without being constantly on edge. Because you’ve worked too hard to dread coming into work every day. 

Please Stop Stressing, You’re Scaring the Cats is an interactive, in-person CPD day designed to help vet professionals understand stress at a deeper level and build practical skills that actually work in real life.

This isn’t a lecture on mindfulness.

And it’s definitely not about sitting still and “emptying your mind” (who has time for that?!).

It’s about learning how to use mindfulness in real time — for example, focusing on the consult in front of you without the internal panic about the number of people still waiting to be seen.

At VeterinaryMindset CPD, we don’t just talk about the skills, we practise them.

Because you wouldn’t learn surgery by starting with a GDV.You’d practise on something simpler first.

Stress works the same way.

You’ll learn and practise the core mindfulness skills in a low-pressure situation, so they’re there for you when things get hard. This isn’t about having a single strategy to pull out in a crisis (although you’ll get those too).

It’s about learning a different way of relating to your work and your life.

Over the day, we’ll explore

• Why vet practice feels so relentlessly stressful

• What actually helps — and what doesn’t

• How mindfulness really works (in plain English)

• How feeling steadier in the moment makes work feel more enjoyable again

• Simple, realistic ways to build mindfulness into a busy day

• How to create a personal plan you can actually stick to

Everything is practical, interactive, and grounded in real veterinary life, supporting you to feel calmer during the day, clearer in your decisions, and more able to enjoy the work you’re already doing.

This day is for you if

• You WANT to enjoy vet work, it just doesn’t feel great right now

• You feel constantly “on edge”, even when things are going well

• You worry about outcomes you can’t fully control

• You struggle to switch off after work

• You want tools that work in practice, not just in theory

  
  

You don’t need any experience with mindfulness. You don’t need to be “good at it”. You just need to be open to trying something different.

What past clients and attendees say

“The best CPD workshop I’ve ever attended.”

“Now I understand why I love surgery so much — I’m mindful when I do that — and why I feel so anxious the rest of the time. And now I know what to do about that.”

“Lucy has taught me how to integrate meditation and mindfulness into a very busy and challenging life; I am no longer in a state of constant panic/overwhelm and can focus (and most importantly enjoy) the moment in front of me!”

“I was a bit sceptical as to how mindfulness and meditation could get me out of the super stressed situation I was in on the verge of burnout. But Lucy has really helped me to switch off from work, be more present and enjoy life outside of work. Focusing much less on a to do list but still being productive and less stressed, it’s a win win situation”

Practical details

Format: In-person, interactive, small group

Who it’s for: Anyone working in veterinary practice

6 hours in CPD

Location: Clevedon Hall, BS21 7RH, just 5 mins from the M5

Date: Wednesday 18th March 9.30 - 16.30

Cost: £175 including lunch

Stress rarely feels like the most urgent thing to deal with.There’s always a full diary, clinical CPD, staff holiday to cover. 

But when stress is left to run in the background, it quietly shapes how work feels. How we wake up in the morning. 

Not just on bad days, on ordinary ones too.

This CPD day is an opportunity to pause, reflect, and build skills that help work feel more manageable AND more enjoyable. Not by changing the job, but by changing how you meet it.