Welcome to the introduction webinar for Work Life Balance, which is a mental wellbeing programme for the veterinary sector, in association with the webinar vets. My name is Stephen Robinson. I'm a qualified mental wellbeing coach.
My name is Anna Ashworth, I'm a cognitive behavioural therapist. My name is Lee Chambers. I'm an environmental psychologist and accredited life coach.
OK, so what we wanna do, we created this, programme, for your sector, for many reasons, guys, didn't we? For many reasons. And we've had a lot of interviews with, with different people in the industry to understand some of the pains, some of the, the challenges that you're going through, that has a negative impact on your wellbeing.
So, I think. What, what, what do you think the benefits are guys, on, on, on how we can help these moving forward? Yeah, so I think we're really, really passionate about the veterinarian profession and there's a lot of different elements that we've looked at when we start to look at the challenges that professionals have, especially towards the wellbeing, and especially in professions where your wellbeing is pivotal to the wellbeing of your clients and the people and animals that you look after.
So for us it it's really that we look at some of the challenges that you face, and instead of trying to bring wellbeing to the veterinarian profession, we've actually looked at the veterinarian profession and thought, OK, so how can we build wellbeing into, The everyday cycle that you have knowing that it's not always so easy to find that time and space to put significant time into wellbeing and we've looked to find little actionable deliverable steps. Yeah, I think an important part with like the veterinary profession is the high percentage of people with perfectionism and. Like, we were talking to one of the vets and he was saying how, kind of, it's difficult to delegate tasks out.
So I part of my work will be to look at kind of the underlying rules and beliefs that people live by and the thought processes and looking at adapting kind of thoughts and beliefs and the rules so that maybe kind of starting to look at delegating tasks out, And we'll be looking at all the different kind of rules that have an impact, which adds so much stress and pressure onto individuals in this sort of profession. Yeah, so this programme has been built especially to look at different sectors of, The veterinarian sector and actually look at the different challenges that they have and ways that we can bring wellbeing into broad stores, and we'll look at quite a wide range of topics. We actually have 9 different sections where we're gonna look at digestible ways that you can take some of the advice that we have and ways to build that into your everyday life.
And obviously when we're looking at some of the, More challenging elements of the profession, such as the lack of recognition that a lot of vets get and how that can impact how you feel, also looking at some of the difficult ethical decisions that need to be made that sometimes will go against your values and your rule sets and how we actually become a bit more resilient against that, and also looking at the fact that you care so much about the work that you do. And how sometimes that compassion fatigue can actually mean that you've not got as much to give yourself because you're giving so much to others. Yeah, definitely.
I think also just, you know, we know, you know, compared to other professions, suicide is very high in in in obviously this profession, hence why we want to try and address it and and help people. We know it's gonna be for, for a lot of people that's gonna attend this a difficult process because like you said, long hours, not many breaks, but the big word here is work-life balance. You know, that is what we're trying to do is we're not trying to change totally how they work.
But it is implementing, like you say, certain things, certain exercises. Regular breaks giving that mind a rest, that they probably don't do, they probably think they do but they don't, and I think obviously some of the techniques that we've got to, to give them, present to them. I think we'll go down really well.
Yeah, particular to follow on from that, like the thought challenging because suicide suicidal thoughts, negative thoughts, but also behavioural strategies as well, like positive behavioural strategies to use as an alternative to taking your own life as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, good point.
And we'll be looking a lot at integration because it, it sometimes, given the nature of the profession, the practises you may work for, that work-life balance isn't always achievable, but there's always ways that even in the more stressful times and the more challenging times, that you can still integrate small elements to help bolster your wellbeing. To help boost your mental health in those challenging times cos that is often when you draw from those resources and you need them most, and the beauty is that we can give you, Lots of small things that you can almost dip into and use when you need them, but also some small things that can be really pivotal if you start to build them into your everyday life. And again, it's all so often about starting small, and finding things that actually you can build in, things that don't feel like you're having to change everything.
Cos that's so difficult when you do such a, you know, such a good job, but smaller things that actually resonate with you, we, we can build into your everyday routine. Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, it's not going unnoticed that.
People in this profession are very passionate in what they do and the love for animals, . And understanding and speaking to people, that's sort of when the reality hits and they're in the industry. You know, that sort of comes against them in a way because the emotional roller coaster that they find themselves on on a daily basis, is, is, is, is just in heightened, you know, constantly, from dealing with, you know, euthanasia from from putting an animal down or dealing with the people that the family that's that's seen that and emotional attachment to that animal they've had for many years.
You know, they've got to adapt in so many emotional situations, but at speed as well. Yeah. And I think it's preparing themselves if they can with some of the techniques we can give them.
Just not jump into each situation because it's just filling the bucket up constantly. And then, you know, hopefully we'll we'll give them some techniques that they can go and, you know, release that bucket and the bucket a bit more and it's not overflowing as you say. We'll be bringing in like mindfulness techniques, but the techniques I'll be bringing in will be to manage thoughts and kind of challenge thoughts and, and look at what you can be doing.
Like taking out those little moments just to be mindful now and again, and, . I think what's great about this programme is because you've got 3 of us that have, have created a lot of the journaling and exercises and stuff like that, which they can document, so that helps them manage this going forward. So once this is over, over.
12 weeks, hopefully, you know, that's what we want is they can take that and implement. And it becomes a manageable, sustainable, all these kind of things that they've not had before. These tools, not going to probably use them constantly every day.
Yeah. But if they feel the mood is changing, or they feel something's not quite right, which tools are good for them. Yeah.
Yes, exactly. . Yeah, and then integrating them regularly, they become more natural.
Yeah. And and what we've found is, you know, people in the veterinary profession are very flexible and have very diverse skill sets and the beauty of that is that allows you to kind of, we don't have and won't be giving very basic information in this course, simply because, you know, so many vets are high functioning. You have to be to be able to operate at those levels and therefore what we're gonna give is more, more integrity strategies.
And if there's one thing about that flexibility, it allows you to be able to, you know, take new principles and new strategies and implement them quite quickly and that's something that's a of a massive benefit to you. And especially given, as you were just alluding to see, the fact that on an everyday basis, you might be dealing with animals in lots of different situations, but also the relative reality of the people behind the animals. If you, you know, need to make a euthanasia, say, at a farm, that's someone's livelihood.
You're then having to deal with that. It might be the family pet, but it could be for a number of reasons, it could be through old age, but it could actually be financial. And again, having, having to make decisions, often quite quickly, emotionally charged, is draining.
And obviously you do such a great job on an everyday basis. We can just provide a few little things that can potentially help you to just look after yourself a little bit more, because again, we really value the work that you do. And I think because the perfectionists.
In, in the, in work as well, I think, you know, there's all these things that they're juggling to keep the high levels of, of what they feel, . He's probably just satisfactory to them, but in a different profession it'd be perfect, well, the inner critic and kind of trying to maintain such high standards, and we'll be looking at perfectionism and the impact and and looking at research which kind of, I think we've adapted rules. We can find some more time because the reward of easing off on perfectionism is time.
And, and then we can start to kind of look at your other values in life and how you can kind of use that time to kind of live by all the values that you that you want to live by. . But that, yeah, the, the perfectionism is what we would call one of the rules for living.
And with those rules comes anxious predictions if you feel like you might break that rule of high standards, and then the inner critic comes when you feel like you've not met your standards. So those rules are a huge source of anxiety, self-criticism, which links in with depression. So it kind of easy enough and kind of.
Yeah, those rules cause a lot of trouble, so it's good to kind of start to reflect on those. Yeah, and the course is so diverse, we even look at elements of delegation given the skills that are available across different professions. And across the different people who work in practises, and it's not always a direct possibility, but our overarching aim here is to get you to a point where you have the time and the energy to enjoy things that you love, as well as the job and also be able to give the best possible care to your patients and your clients while still having that time for a little bit of self-care for you, a little bit.
Time to keep yourself in a great physical and mental space so you can keep giving and again, your cor of care increases the more you look after yourself. And that's really what we're looking to achieve with this programme. It's really built around getting you to a place where you do have more time and energy to do the things that you love, and a few little tips to help you get to that place.
Good point. So I think we'll just run through some of the areas that we're gonna cover. So there's 9, all in all.
So there's 12 weeks. Which will be done through a live webinar. All 3 of us, all 3 coaches will be present every week.
They'll be downloadable material for every session. Hopefully you'll do it beforehand, but we will be prompting you to download it, so it will be an interactive session. And we want you to do the exercises there and then if you've invested in that time, we want you to do that, them exercises there and then and not not do them later on, that's it won't happen.
But I think just going on the first one, I start off on session one, which will be behaviours, goals and motivation. And we spend time filling. And dealing with and having a vision to like a well-being goal, a well-being vision at the end of the course, the 12 week course, and establishing that and then try and visualise that, how does that feel, etc.
And then we can build in goals on a weekly basis. And we're gonna reflect that at 48, and 12 weeks. We're gonna invite vets from the industry on week 48 and 12 as well.
Let them give us their feedback, they'll be doing the course alongside these guys, and they could give us, you know, their honest opinions, ask us questions and we'll be really interactive with them within the studio as well for that sessions, them live sessions as well. So, coming in mind, the benefits of doing mine is just setting it out for, you know, the 12 weeks. So it's it's, it's the backbone of the programme and all the documentation will be going through that.
In the early stages, and then week 2. Week 2 is my session, so I'll be doing emotions. So first of all, I'll be introducing you to what CBT is, what you can expect from it.
We'll start to look at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Well, a lot of it's about understanding at first, so we'll be looking at like what the fight or flight response is about understanding emotion. We'll be looking at the different maintenance cycles, so we'll be looking at anxiety cycle, but also the depression cycle and introducing you to like the low self-esteem model as well.
From that session, it's important that we start recognising negative thoughts, so that can be anxious predictions, self-criticisms, and then from that session, I dip into a start off the 3rd session with Lee. And get you then after you've been noticing your thoughts for the week, we start doing, I introduced the thought challenging interventions, so starting to question these negative thoughts, and then Lee will carry on with the 3rd session. Super, so the 3rd session looks at movement as a tool to increase our mental wellbeing.
And so often, as you appreciate, exercise is touted for all its benefits, but exercise is only one small part of the overall movement equation when it comes to looking at how we can use that to be mentally stronger, to have more mental fortitude and to improve our mental health. Especially in challenging times. So it's actually, we look at a lot of different elements, we start to get an understanding of how movement affects us mentally, the processes within our brain, the neural science behind it, and how that affects us psychologically and how we can then start to use movement.
To really benefit us in the challenging times, and naturally vets do move about quite a lot, depending on what your positions and roles are for the day, but at the same time we do need to look to build different elements of movement in our lives, so we start to look at different opportunities to move, how. We can implement a little bit more into some of our non-work activities. And then we look at the whole wider scope of how simply with a few more steps, we can actually start to be mentally stronger and how movement as a whole actually makes us a stronger and more rounded vet.
And then we start to actually look at some more actionable elements we can take to increase our overall movement in ways that we enjoy, in ways that engage with us, and in ways that actually fit into our lives, and then we move on to week 4. Yeah, so, week 4 is back to me. Well, it's back to us all, to be honest, cos it's reflection, guys.
So, yeah, week 4 we'll reflect on them 3 weak areas and we'll actually get him to do the, the mental wellbeing wheel, which we want to mention towards the end. And we'll reflect on that and the progression accordingly. So week 5 is social connection.
So the importance of social connection in your life, may be at work, may it be at home, but we're gonna challenge that social circle to see does it fit, does it fit in relation to what you want, how you want to progress, are then people there, are there people there that you want to. Gain advice for, from relationships, for financial, for work, etc. Are they in your tribe or do you have to go and search for more one, new ones?
The, the other thing would be an, an action plan to, once you've established that or made some changes, there's an action plan that we're gonna implement, to really keep them people close by and really have a positive impact on your life going forward. So over to week 6, OK, week 6 focuses on stress. So I'll be looking at what stress is, but again looking at these rules for living, which adds so much stress and pressure onto us, so like their perfectionism, the need to please, I must achieve, things like that.
We'll be looking at techniques to manage the unhelpful thoughts such as like the what ifs, regrets, ruminations, some of the key techniques like detached mindfulness, which introduces mindfulness and present moment focus. And we'll be looking at, techniques, particularly from the sleep interventions, cos when we're stressed, often we struggle with sleep as well. So we'll start to introduce sleep interventions as well, which can help.
OK, I don't know if it's Lee again. Yep, and then on week 7 we'll be looking specifically around nutrition and how nutrition again affects our mental wellbeing. So firstly, we'll be starting to look at that connection between nutrition.
And our mental health. And again it's something that's not often explored. We look a lot around nutrition and physical health, but nutrition plays a massive part because over 90% of our serotonin receptors, one of the significant neurochemicals in our brain.
For being happy, for social connection, and for feeling vitalized, are in your gut, and because of that, nutrition plays an absolutely pivotal role in how we feel on an everyday basis, and everyone will know just how you feel when you eat something that doesn't really agree with you, it spikes your blood sugar. And then you fall back down into this pit of feeling lethargic, of feeling challenged. But we can actually find ways to still enjoy a little bit of the things that we don't tolerate so well, but actually start to have a little bit more control over that.
So looking at the methods we can start to prepare a little bit more for the times when we've had such a long day, we don't feel like cooking. So ensuring that we have that level of preparation, but we also start to look at the other things which affect our nutritional hormones and also our preparation, and we start to look at ways that we can segment our days, ways that we can ensure that we've got things that nourish us and just how important nutrition is for a vet, because you've got to have fuel and energy to do your job to an optimal level, and if you're able to ensure that you're fueled. In a way that is actually great for you because we're all a little bit different when it comes to nutrition.
There won't be any meal plans, there won't be any significant suggestions, cos what's actually important is you take a little bit of time to go and experiment with your nutrition and find what energises you and what you can tolerate. Well, because we all have a slightly different microbiome, a different gut enzyme makeup, but we can start to look at ways to explore that. And then we'll move on to week 8, where we'll again look to cover all three areas and reflect, and we will be bringing special guests on from the profession, vets to come and share their reflective experiences just so that we understand the challenges that you face, but it's a veterinarian design programme.
We had a lot of input and that's what's made it show that it's actually bespoke, never delivered before and tailored to you, and then we moved back to Stephen for week 9. Yeah, so week 9 which is. Important like all 9, but integrity, which I think in these profession in this profession especially, obviously integrity plays a vital part.
But understanding yourselves, I think a lot of the exercises that we do, it's understanding self-discovery in a lot of ways that, you know, once you learn about yourself, you can take it forward and know how to manage yourself going forward. So about core values, if you'd not have any core values that are, you know, in front of you, we'll do exercises to, To understand what, what, what ticks your boxes, on your bucket list and how you implement them in everyday life and in your work life. And that really starts to really phase in nicely into Anna's week of work-life balance, doesn't it?
Because you, yeah. Yeah, we can, I follow that through with, looking at, we start to look at the impact of such a busy work schedule, depression, the rules for living, on how we Live our lives and focus more on values and starting to live a more values led life. So I bring in kind of techniques, called like activity scheduling, which we'll be doing in accordance with values.
So looking at scheduling activities, time management. I also start to introduce, work from the low self-esteem model, kind of recognising positive qualities, I'm bringing some kind of calming, calm breathing, relaxation exercises as well into that session. And then I pass on back to Lee.
Back to you, Lee. Yep, on week 11 we really bring the whole programme together by looking at energy, which is absolutely vital because, As we pass through and especially start to look at the time management elements as a vet, sometimes that ability to time manage it simply isn't there, things are slotted into the diary, emergencies come in, consults are booked in those slots where you're supposed to have a break. So what can we do when we don't always have that much control over our time?
One thing we do have a significant amount of control over is our energy, so. Actually start to look at how can we both boost our energy and protect our reserves of energy so we can continue to give the best care to our clients. So we start to look at the different areas, we start to understand our, our body's biorhythms, and how we by honouring those, we'll find that we can really leverage more energy over the course of a day.
We start to look at lots of different things which affect our energy. So We dip back into a lot of the other areas, taking the really pertinent points from sleep, from nutrition, from movement, from balance, and really build them into a little programme which you can use to really charge up your battery and ensure that you're able, still at the end of a long challenging day, to have the energy to utilise a lot of these new skills you'll learned through the programme and also have the time and energy to do the. Things that you love, the hobbies outside of work, to continue to have that life because even though this profession is incredibly encompassing and can sometimes almost engross your whole existence, you are still more than a vet, you are the person that you are, and we bring the whole course together by looking at how we can get the energy so that you can also be an amazing vet and an amazing human being too.
Brilliant. So that week 12 is reflection where we start to wind everything up and reflect on the total 12 weeks. We ask them to score themselves again on the mental wellbeing assessment wheel to hopefully get all the improvements and they can see it visually in front of themselves over them 9 areas how they've improved by implementing the techniques and the exercises that we're gonna give them.
So, just to round up, the mental wellbeing assessment wheel is available. If you click on the link below, that is downloadable to free. Take it away, go and do the exercise, there's questions to every one of them 9 areas.
So that's an understanding that'll give you an insight on what we're looking at. And, and it's a benchmark, it's a starting point. So it'd be good to bring that, definitely bring that to the session.
You can fill it in as many times as you want, you know, there's, there's no mistakes, is there really? But it's a great starting point, and for me, finally, and then obviously if you two want to have a have a say, is just, You know, relax and enjoy it, this is your time, this is to discover yourselves and really try and implement and I know it's gonna be difficult in a lot of ways because the hectic lifestyle that especially on the work side you live, but I really think by implementing just a few of these tools or using the tools on a, on a daily or weekly basis will improve your wellbeing tremendously. Definitely.
Yeah. And I agree completely. The kind of techniques and skills that I'll be bringing to the course, I suppose as a CBT practitioner, my aim is to kind of teach people to be their own CBT therapists, and that's what you'll get from the course.
It's all the techniques you would get from Attending private sessions with a CBT therapist so they can use these techniques, and you're right, the more they use them, the more they'll get used to and it'll become ingrained and natural for them to use the techniques. Great. Yeah.
And I feel that the real beauty of the course is, this is some time to invest in you, and we're aware of how much time you invest in work, how much time you. Invest into professional development, and this is gonna be something that will give you a lot of valuable skills that you can utilise for your future, but it will be interactive, will be available for guided learning on every session, and we'll be here because ultimately we're here for you for. 12 weeks of looking at how we can start to invest a little bit more in ourselves, tips and tools that you'll be able to use for the rest of your lifetime, and that will give you a lot back if you just put a little bit of time in and join our course today.
