Neuro-Informed Stress Management for Veterinary Professionals | Episode 88 | Reviving Vet Med

Stress is an inevitable part of veterinary medicine, but understanding how our brains respond can transform the way we manage it. In this episode, Dr. Sonja Olson, a veterinary wellness coach, former emergency veterinarian, and certified neuroinformed and mindfulness coach, shares her expertise on neuro-informed stress management.

We explore what happens in the brain and nervous system during chronic stress, how neuro-resilience can be cultivated, and practical, science-based strategies to regulate the nervous system in real time. Sonja also discusses the role of social connection, environment, and daily practices in building long-term resilience, helping veterinary professionals thrive both personally and professionally.

This conversation offers evidence-based guidance and actionable tools for anyone in veterinary medicine looking to reduce stress, improve wellbeing, and foster a healthier, more sustainable career.

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Resources
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Pre-orders Sonja’s book (due to be published August 2026): www.routledge.com/9781032753928

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Transcript

Dr. Marie Holowaychuk - If there's one thing every veterinarian wishes they had more of, it's support. Someone to help you keep up, think ahead, and take some pressure off your day. That's exactly why Scribenote created Companion, your personal veterinary workflow assistants. It's like having another vet or assistant following you around through your day, helping you get things done faster and with less stress. There's Sumi, the History Companion, who can take a big, messy medical history and instantly summarize the key details. There's Quill, the writing companion. Ask him to tidy up your notes, change the tone, fix formatting, or even translate and he'll handle it for you. And there's Sage, the research Companion, who deep dives into trusted veterinary sources and brings you clear answers with citations so you can make decisions quickly and confidently. You can try them all as part of the free plan and see what it's like to have real backup in your workflow. Just head to scribenote.com to learn more. 

Dr. Marie - Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med. April is National Stress Awareness Month, so today we're talking about stress through a slightly different lens, one grounded in neuroscience. We'll explore how understanding the brain and nervous system can help veterinary professionals respond to stress more skillfully, recover more quickly, and build greater resilience over time. My guest today is Dr. Sonja Olson, a credentialed veterinary wellness coach, educator and veterinarian with nearly 30 years of practice experience. Sonja specializes in helping veterinary individuals, teams and leaders navigate personal and professional stress, optimize their holistic health, and cultivate emotional well being. In this episode, Sonja and I explore the concept of neuro-informed stress management, what it means, what happens in the brain when we're under stress, and how tools grounded in neuroscience can help us regulate our nervous systems in real time. 

Dr. Marie - We will also talk about neuroresilience, the power of social connection and supportive environments, and practical strategies veterinary professionals can begin using today. So let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Dr. Sonja Olson. This is the Reviving Vet Med podcast and I'm your host, Dr. Marie Holowaychuk. My mission is to improve the mental health and well being of veterinary professionals around the world. 

Dr. Marie - All right. Hello Sonja, thank you so much for being here. It's great to have you. 

Dr. Sonja Olson -  I am stoked to be with you again. Marie. Yay. 

Dr. Marie -Yay. I am really excited to get into this information and I think that our listeners are going to get a lot out of it. For those who might be new to this idea, what does NERD thorough, informed stress management actually mean and how does that differ from traditional stress management advice? 

Dr. Sonja - So when we are in a space of increased awareness, that in and of itself helps calm us down. Right. So to my fellow veterinary geeks out there in the audience, neuroscience is available to us to make these practices not only really evidence based, but yummy because there's science behind it. So I love the idea that we are tapping into our human physiology, the wisdom that is born to every single one of us and having then the awareness of, oh, I have this, oh, there are strategies for me to notice it and then to call in these practices. That's neuro informed, that's also practicing weaving in. You know, for those of you that hear the word mindful and you go ugh. 

Dr. Marie - Woo woo. 

Dr. Sonja - Well, neuroscience is there to say why those things work. So that's really what I'm bringing forward is that we can put them now under this umbrella that I feel like is a little bit maybe more palatable to our skeptical scientists in the veterinary community. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah, so it sounds like this really takes a scientific approach. 

Dr. Marie - Right. 

Dr. Marie - It's not just the typical stress, you know, just calm down and these things that aren't really tangible, but there is actually neuroscience research that can allow us to really tune in to the physiologic changes in our body and then take concerted efforts to reduce that stress. Speaking of stress, I mean there's no shortage of stress in the veterinary profession. And you and I know this very well. There's a big emotional load in the work that we do. There's time pressures in practice, there's difficult conversations we're having on a regular basis. And of course there's also animals suffering and clients suffering and so forth. From a neuroscience perspective, what is happening in the brain and nervous system during these moments of stress? 

Dr. Sonja - Oh, I love that question so much. And I just want people even just like when hearing you describe it, just notice what that evokes in you because what's happening is that you're remembering, your nervous system remembers. And that's sort of the key here, is that there is this experience when we hear, when we witness, there are things that are stirred up in us. And it's really helpful even for Marie now to really help people be clear that compassion fatigue is a really important phenomenon in veterinary medicine. What's largely causing us to feel the fatigue, the distress, the feeling I can't care anymore is empathic strain and distress. So what's going on in us is that those parts of our brains, our hearts and our nervous systems that are attached to relationships and caring about suffering are getting pinged when we're in those spaces. 

Dr. Sonja - And my goodness, it's every day, it's every shift. And it's not like the walls of the practice keep it from happening when you walk out and walk in. Right. So we're exposed to things all the time in the world. So really that's part of this is what's happening to us as deeply compassionate and empathic beings in veterinary medicine. How is that then impacting those places of our brains and our nervous systems and pushing us against those limits of our window of tolerance, which we'll talk a little bit about today. Right. So I think that's really important for us to say that we take on the energy of others and that can be for good. And that can also put us into a greater state of distress. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah. So we often talk about the nervous system shifting into survival mode. 

Dr. Sonja - Right. 

Dr. Marie - And I think there's this sentiment in vet medicine, we want to move from surviving to thriving. And that's a phrase that I've used often as well. I'm curious, what happens in the brain? Can you explain, particularly with structures like the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, when we are feeling overwhelmed or activated, triggered, whatever the word, that resonates with you when that happens at work, you talk about these moments of pinging, and for me, it's that getting activated because something has just triggered something in us or rubbed us the wrong way, what's happening in the brain itself. 

Dr. Sonja - So what I also wanna make sure of, I love, like I said, language clarity. So when we are experiencing stressors, which can come in lots of flavors in our environments, then we can have a stress reaction. And what does that actually look like and feel like and what's going on under the hood. Right. As far as what's happening in our brains, really valuable for us to remember that neurotransmitters and energy are what's informing our reactions or responses and our behavior. Where does that come from? Well, the mainframe of our brains, the prefrontal cortex, is there to help us concentrate, to plan, and to regulate emotions. When cortisol rises in response to stress reactions, norepinephrine rises, mainframe goes out the door. In fact, it's like diminished by somewhere between 60 and 70%. The research points to that. 

Dr. Sonja - Prefrontal cortex capacities really diminish and we go into a state then of poor decision making. We're having a hard time focusing, communicating. We might even go into a space of brain fog and losing of time. So it's fascinating to see what's going on there and the other structures that are absolutely involved. And I love the idea because this is now also for those of you that may not know this, the triune brain theory debunked. Not true. So this idea that we have reptile brain and mammal brain and then, oh, we're so smart humans. Not exactly. It's really complex and it's circuitry, it's interconnected. It's not very surprising when you think of it that way. But the idea that there's limbic hijack is a misnomer. So the limbic system is there to help bring up emotions and response. 

Dr. Sonja - And it's a circuitry that's also then connected to our hippocampus, which has memory and learning. When our cortisol goes up, norepinephrine goes up. We go into a space then of the circuitry not working very effectively. They're not communicating well, and instead they get short circuited. I like that idea that it's short circuited, fuzzy, it feels unavailable. We feel unskillful. We don't even know how to communicate what it is that's happening or what we need. So that's really valuable to know. These structures are there to keep us safe and alive. That's fundamentally what's going on for us. When we feel overwhelmed and we are pushed into hyper arousal, sympathetic or hypoarousal, parasympathetic overwhelm. We go into these spaces of fight, flight, freeze, numb, and we shut down. 

Dr. Sonja - So it's just our nervous systems have gone into a state of ineffective circuitry, communication, and betting most of us can actually know what that feels like in different spaces. Sometimes our heart is racing. Buzzy, buzzy, want to leave? You know, no, thank you. Or make it small. Make small. Be quiet, get very shut down. Depending on the situation and depending on you. So I'm hopeful that you all can just kind of feel into, oh, that's what's going on. That really actually I can relate to that. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. I can think of situations in practice where a client gets upset with me and what feels like out of nowhere. So I'm caught off guard and I lose the ability to really find my words. And it takes a moment to really reengage that prefrontal cortex and to be able to thoughtfully respond. And sometimes I have to step away from the situation to be able to manage that. I'm curious. I mean, this sounds again, I think, relatable. To all of us. And I love that you really tie in the brain structures and the cortisol and everything else. What happens when this response becomes a chronic response? Do we then tend to see? Because I think that's the challenge that a lot of us experience is we haven't programmed ourselves to rest and digest after a shift is over. 

Dr. Marie - Like you said, it doesn't get contained within the practice. We leave the practice and maybe we're still holding onto it or maybe we don't even realize it's there. Maybe we go home and there's more stress. What happens when that is a chronic activation when it comes to neurologically within the body. 

Dr. Sonja - And I just want to call out the ways that you just, you know, set that up, Marie, because here's the thing is that sometimes we know it and sometimes we don't. There's quite a bit that we take in. It's at a subconscious level. And we leave our shift just cellularly exhausted and all we want to do is be quiet and to isolate. And how does that play out for the rest of your life, quite truthfully, to connecting with your animals, your family, your partners, you and the things that you love maybe to do outside of work. Do you even have the energy for those things? And really that's the thing is that I want us to know that we can reclaim our energy and have that available for the work that we do in a more effective way. Not just by ourselves, but together. 

Dr. Sonja - And same that we can reclaim this for the rest of our lives. And so that we're not just laying there on the couch with Netflix, you know, going on or doom scrolling or you know, whatever it is that you do to numb out and disconnect. So what I want to bring into this then is what you are pointing towards is that chronic stress is hugely detrimental to our systems as animals, all animals. And when we have chronic patterns of behavior, the neurons that fire together wire together. And that's for the good and for the ugly. When we have habitual ways of doing things, those are going to be the reactions that happen the fastest. And it would take intentional pausing and shifting and doing something different if that's what we decide is healthiest for us. 

Dr. Sonja - But if we aren't doing that, we are going to go to those automatic patterns of behavior of soothing, whatever that may be for you. Physiologically we know that chronic stress, which is an allostatic load, can cause cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes. Immune mediated diseases are more likely to occur especially if you have a genetic predisposition for these we know that your immune system is taxed. So we are in this space also. This really. I think you guys will recognize this. When our cortisol is chronically high, we all are in some degree of Addison's disease. And I didn't know that for myself until it really became so apparent, and it was in my face with cardiac arrhythmias and GERD and so many other things that were. I was like, oh, this is happening. So we know these things. We're medical practitioners. We understand it. 

Dr. Sonja - Yet we don't think to apply those rules to our own systems and care about that, to care about that these are detrimental things that can be a place where it changes your life, your quality of life, and the length of your life. And only we as individuals can have a moment to say, it doesn't have to be like that. And then as a community, to say, no, it doesn't. And I care enough about myself and you that we're going to do this differently. So I think that's really the call to action. 

Dr. Marie -Yeah. So, I mean, it sounds like there's this adrenal fatigue almost, right. Like, the cortisol levels have been up, and our adrenals have been squeezing to get those cortisol levels up for so long that we reach the state, like you said, of almost Addison's disease, where there's nothing left. And you add onto that this layer of patterning behavior. And I love that. What Dan Siegel always says, neurons that fire together, wire together. We create those patterns. And they're not just psychological. They are neurological patterns within the brain that we default to. And I remember him describing. It's almost like creating these grooves in your brain. And the wheels are just going to want to go into these grooves. 

Dr. Marie - And it takes a lot of work to get the wheels out of the grooves and to create different grooves, which is what we want to do, rather than, as you said, using soothing patterns and other unhealthy coping strategies to respond to stress. I think that's a great segue into what I want us to focus on, which is this concept of neuroresilience or neuroinformed living. And I know how passionately you feel about these concepts. What do those terms mean? And how can veterinary professionals begin to cultivate that in their daily work and personal lives? 

Dr. Sonja - Yeah. No, so this is really. I do get really jazzed about this, because hope. Hope is in the room. And there's research that really proves this out, that through functional MRIs and EEGs and cortisol assays you name it. This has been going on for decades, friends. It's just that we are bringing it towards our profession finally. And what's really fun is that we now also have veterinary specific research being done. Hooray. What is true as human animals though, that it is true that we are unique in that we perpetuate the stress cycle more so than the antelope that just got startled by the lion pride. They go back into grazing, they complete their stress cycle and they move on about their lives. Humans, not so much. We spend a little more time simmering and marinating in that and making a story. Why? 

Dr. Sonja - Because we have these spaces in our brains that are activating memory and we have then emotions. I know this is trippy, this is fun. Rabbit hole. Emotions are predictors. Emotions are there to say, do you remember that this happened back then? And I'm going to evoke this emotion to activate these thinking patterns, these physiologic responses in you so that you are more likely to take this behavior that will keep you safe. What's really amazing is that we can create new memory banks, new approaches, which means then when we have a stressor that comes to us, we have new memories to draw upon that says you know what I navigated, that I remember that I had resilience around, that I had strategies and strengths. And this is how I did it. 

Dr. Sonja - Not just me, perhaps, maybe some me, some calling in collective wisdom of my community. So this is the opportunity for us to take approaches then that literally change our brain, change our emotional reaction and response and so that our behaviors change. And how amazing it is that we can change the story, right? As opposed to going into those ruts again and again we take a different path. 

Dr. Marie - So this concept, if I'm hearing you correctly, of neuroinformed living is recognizing what is happening on a neurologic level in our day to day interaction. So for example, if I'm in practice and a client looks at me in a funny way, I'm picking up my brain, maybe even picking up on some cues. My mirror neurons are seeing what is happening here and they're being activated. And the hippocampus, our memory center, is remembering the last time you had a client that did this, they yelled at you and that was uncomfortable. And so then maybe our anger center in our limbic system is activated and that we find ourselves already getting angry and gearing up for a fight with this client. Right. To defend ourselves. We're not all in it for the money. And if you only knew how hard our days were and everything else. 

Dr. Marie - And so what you're describing then is that this neuroinformed living is a recognition of those patterns and that whole pathway and activation system so that we can be aware of that and choose different ways, like be totally present to noticing our feelings that are coming up. 

Dr. Sonja - Yeah. 

Dr. Marie - Recognizing the stories which are probably tied to the memory of what happened before and then choosing different patterns. And then this concept of neuro resilience then would be that this builds resilience for you, this improves your ability to bounce back from stress in these situations. Do I have that right? 

Dr. Sonja - And I love your examples because I just was giggling as she said it. I was like, yes, that situation where somebody looks at you with a side eye. And we are wired also as humans with these mirror neurons, as you mentioned. And so that is part of relationship building and trust building and safety building. 

Dr. Marie - Very important. 

Dr. Sonja - It can also knock on your memories and be like, oh, and what I saw was. So we know that nonverbals are about 80% or so of our communication with each other. So we are really wired to notice body language and facial expressions, tone of voice, and that really brings up stuff with us. So there's things happening at a level that you may not recognize or notice. However, the resiliency piece comes in with me choosing to slow down, to get curious, to get compassionate with myself, but also what's happening over there with that human. You're like, what's going on here? And what would I like this to be like? How do I want to show up here? 

Dr. Sonja - And how is it that this can be the most productive and effective space for me where I can do the most good rather than being on automatic pilot where bad things, unskillful things happen sometimes and we end up having to clean up messes or have to work through the distress that we experience in the moment. Then afterwards, what if we had a little bit more say so around that? And resiliency, as you say, I love. Also make sure that we are not talking about grit and tough and Teflon. That's not what we mean by resilience. What we mean is that you come back to a place of homeostasis, that you're bendy as the winds of life push you around because you're deeply rooted in yourself, in your community, in your knowing, so that you can bend and not break. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah. And what I really love about this is that it brings it back to the science. Right. I think as scientists, as veterinary professionals, we really lean into the science and the Data to support why things happen and how diseases progress and how we treat them and so on. And so we're applying a lot of those strategies to ourselves rather than having it be this woo, as we said, or these so-called soft skills that we just need to armor ourselves with. This is real. These are things that are happening to us on a neurologic level. And I take comfort in that. I take comfort in knowing I'm not just an impatient person with a hot temper. For example, there's somebody who's easily triggered in certain situations. There's neurologic reasoning behind that. Right. And those pathways are developed for survival. 

Dr. Marie - This is how we came to survive that. The problem is we didn't stop along the way to remind ourselves that we are no longer in survival mode. We have for most of us, thankfully, food, clothing, shelter, our basic necessities are met. We don't need to be running away from predators and other things that have amped up our nervous system this way. So I know for me that keeps me out of a place of shame or thinking there's something wrong with me or I'm a bad person or I don't have control over my emotions to recognize this is all happening neurologically for a reason. And I do have a capacity to rewire and reconfigure some of these patterns that have been created. 

Dr. Marie - April is National Stress Awareness Month. So what better time to invest in your veterinary team? Team Reviving Veterinary Medicine's lunch and learns. Give your team members practical, actionable strategies to manage stress, improve communication and build a resilient workplace. These one hour AVMA approved CE sessions are facilitated by Dr. Sonja Olson and me and your team will walk away with tools they can immediately use. Learn more or book a session today at revivingvetmed.com. 

Dr. Marie - I wonder when somebody is in the middle of a stressful situation during a shift, right? Maybe it is a difficult client or maybe there's an emergency. You and I can both relate to the emergency room and a hit by car comes through the door or a GDV and we weren't expecting it. How can individuals recognize the shift in their nervous system and regulate the nervous system in real time? What techniques would you recommend to them? 

Dr. Sonja - So here we go to neurotransmitters again. Hooray. So what's really fun is that number one, individually we can go through a series and I'll just mention these practices in the order of effectiveness and it brings in gaba. And when we have gaba, it helps to decrease cortisol and norepinephrine. And we're better able to tap into the true connection between the circuitry and of the different effective parts of our brain. And we can do that individually, but extra sauce is when we do it together. We call in dopamine, we call in serotonin and oxytocin. Again, giving messages to the body of, it's okay, it's all right, you're not alone. So back to safety. Fundamental, right? Fundamental and belonging. I'm in the community. This is a powerful thing for all humans. I don't care where you are on the introvert to extrovert. You're a human being. 

Dr. Sonja - And that means that this is what your nervous system was designed to do and to respond to. So the order of things that can be really helpful. And I'll just name them. Then I'll talk about the one that is the most effective. So the name it to tame it. What's happening? What's going on here? Like, what am I feeling? Name the emotion. What's going on in my body? Where's my head? So even just like labeling it gently helps. Again, very cool. You're getting curious. That alone goes knock on your prefrontal cortex. Really effective. It's fast. The other thing is, can you do anything to control in the environment? When I think about like a CPR or something, animal crashing in that moment, having a strategy, having practiced it for an example, helps us to know what to do in what order. 

Dr. Sonja - And immediately people go boom, boom into their roles. We have taken control as best as we can of a very complex, dynamic moment. So that's part of controlling your environment is sometimes something that can be practiced or thought through ahead of time. So you're better prepared in that moment. But it may or may not be available. The third one is really in that moment, particularly for you, if something really just went smash, really getting into a space of like, who am I? What matters to me and why am I doing this? So when you're feeling low or you're feeling wrong, you made a mistake. Mistakes suck and they're inevitable. Remembering, I'm a good person. I'm a kind person. I'm a capable person. I'm doing the best that I can, and the reason I do this is this. 

Dr. Sonja - So your values and your purpose connect you to something bigger. It gives you perspective. Again. Again, it's a knock on your prefrontal cortex, giving you perspective. Reframing. Wow. Powerful tool. Reframing, really. When you're in a space of like, I call these really tough moments unscheduled growth opportunities. Did not ask for this. And it's here. And rather than going don't want it, don't need it, too bad, so sad it's here. So what are you going to do about it? I'm going to learn from it. I'm going to do the best that I can, maybe by myself, maybe with some others and I'm going to grow and learn as a result as instead of going into victim mode or I can't mode. So growth mindset, like what is there to learn here? And that's for individuals and teams. 

Dr. Sonja - The most effective though, the one that really works. Shocking to not you and I, maybe to some. Mindfulness. Mindfulness for the win. The most effective strategy that our body responds to is the mindful pause. So to take you just really it's quick where you stop what you're doing for just a moment, very intentionally take in very deep breaths through your nose and out of your mouth with that longer exhalation phase. Doesn't matter how many beats it is, it's just that the exhale's longer than the inhale. It soothes your vagus nervous system and in that heart rate goes down, blood pressure goes down. We get better oxygenated blood coming into our brain and we get perspective and we feel our bodies and then we're better able to look around to really notice where we are and to proceed. 

Dr. Sonja - So it's really bringing in that capacity and practicing that capacity so that your brain knows that you can, that your nervous system knows how to reconnect safely quickly and making this your safe place that's not available for everyone right away. It takes practice. That is the order of things. Practice. Try them on. 

Dr. Marie - I love it. And that's the thing to recognize is this is a practice. And I think sometimes people have the misconception that stress is just something that we have to live with. This is just our regular life and our brains just are the way they are. It kind of goes a little bit back to that fixed mindset that you mentioned. Like we practice vet medicine and it's stressful and that's just how it is. But this concept of neuroplasticity which you've touched on gives us that hope that our brains can actually change and they can become more resilient with practice. Do you want to elaborate a little bit on what neuroplasticity really means and what exactly we're doing when we're engaging in these practices? 

Dr. Sonja - So there, I love that there's a quote that I love bringing into this space, that neuroplasticity is a six syllable word for hope. Yay. So this is something again. Every one of you were born with this capacity. And what's phenomenal is that we can do this for our entire lives. It's not that we have a cluster of cells that mature and that's it. You're done. You're cooked. You're set in your ways. Have you heard that language? You're set in your ways. Well, that's a choice. It's a choice. And I'm here to share with you that you can by practice, intention, repetition, notice, rinse and repeat. You are myelinating new pathways. And just as we're talking about, the wiring together of these pathways create new pathways for you to choose. This is the path I'm going to choose here and over here. 

Dr. Sonja - I want to go in this direction. And you're informing it with your values, you're informing it with your knowledge of self and your curiosity and compassion so that you can keep opening up those wisdom file drawers for those of us that are old enough to remember filing cabinets. Okay. And if you're at the tech age, you're clicking on your files till they're in your brain to go ahead and open up and go, oh, right, these things. Oh, right, these people. So it's really a great way for us to remember to be in a place of humility. Yes, we're messy. And also of being a little inspired and a little bit optimistic about the potential of ourselves and of each other. So I just want to call that out as well. 

Dr. Sonja - Is that when you see someone in front of you or multiple someones, be unskillful, pause, tap into that amazing, compassionate heart of yours and get curious what's going on over there. Yeah. And we can really do that in our workspaces for sure. With clients, with our teammates that may be having a moment. And also, quite truthfully, in the world that we find ourselves today. Right. So many opportunities to go, whoa, pause, gotta take a moment, take care. And then what pathway that have I practiced that I want to bring towards this moment? 

Dr. Marie - Yeah. It is such an intentional practice. And I know people often say people don't change, but the reality is that everybody has the capacity to change. Our brains, literally, with science based research, can change. And it takes practice and it takes a desire and a wanting to do that. Otherwise we do stay stuck in those ruts. And I just think that this is really important information to hold too. If you feel like this is just the way I am. These are my patterns. This is just how I deal with stress. There are better neuro informed ways that we can manage this. Sonja, you mentioned something that stood out to me which was mentioning isolation. And I think you and I, all human beings really can have these responses to stress where we do self-isolate. 

Dr. Marie - And I know for me that happens especially when my stress is paired with shame. If I feel like I've done something wrong or I'm not a good person in some way, maybe I'll use a home example. Maybe I snapped at my daughter because she was pushing my buttons and then I feel really bad and so I self-isolate from a neuroinformed perspective. How do things like social connection and the culture of the team and our physical environment and who we surround ourselves with, how do those influence our stress levels and our recovery? 

Dr. Sonja - I can't say enough about it. It's so important. Just thank you. I mean it's. There's a reason why solitary confinement is a punishment for people, for humans. Our nervous systems were not designed to be alone. There is solitude. There is a healthy choice around choosing moments to restore yourself in solitude. That's wise action. That's knowing what you need when and that my nervous system needs this. My brain, you know, for all the brains that are and the nervous systems that are. Because there are so many nuances and things that of course are there to make us unique. What is true though is that coming into community helps to foster a greater sense of a number of things we are better able to. This is really cool and amazing that we could co-regulate our emotions. We are designed to do that. 

Dr. Sonja - That means that we can normalize them, we can integrate the lessons from them and let them go. And so that we don't just keep stashing them in our backpack to be processed or not processed honestly where they just make a home in our body. So the capacity to come together and have a conversation around what happened and we do that through huddles and through debriefing. Maybe it's one-on-ones with a trusted person in your life, a colleague, coach, mentor, or partner. And there's skillful ways to do that as well. So being thoughtful of what we're sharing and what we're connecting around so that we don't slime each other, you know, being thoughtful of that. 

Dr. Sonja - So I think the capacities for us to soothe our own nervous system is amplified dramatically when we're in a place of trust and safety with one or multiple others that get it and they. We know they care about us, they really want to see us feel better, move through. And that can be really challenging for us. In our historical conditioning in vet med, we have had this stoicism, the tough enough, the strong enough. If I don't demonstrate that, then like you say, the shame shows up and is unhelpful, really unhelpful. And for us to recognize that to some degree we're all feeling that and to just normalize that's what's going on and that we want something different in our conversations. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah, I think the benefit of social connection can't be understated. And you hit so many important points. We know there's research to show that social connections are a huge predictor of well being and longevity over time. Just in the general population. There's research in vet medicine even to show that when individuals, when veterinarians engage with others and they share a challenging situation and that challenge is met with compassion and understanding and validation and kindness, that their stress levels come down, their depression scores go down, their overall sense of well being improves. And if I think if we take it back to the neuro informed level, it goes back to what you shared earlier, which was all of those happy hormones, right? 

Dr. Marie -The oxytocin that gets released when you're in the presence of somebody or maybe you're hugging somebody, or the serotonin that goes up and all of these comforting things, neurotransmitters, hormones, et cetera, that help bring those cortisol levels down. And so often is a simple, I get it or been there, done that. I've done that too. It sucks. Can be just so incredibly transformative. And I think again, we underestimate the impact that actually has on our nervous system, not just on our psyche. I'm wondering if somebody listening is feeling overwhelmed. They're like, wow, this is a lot of big words. This is a lot of neuroscience that I haven't had since vet school or tech school or they just feel stuck in a cycle of stress. 

Dr. Marie - They're like, yeah, this sounds all fine and good, but I've tried mindfulness, it doesn't work for me or whatever it is. What would you say is one neuroinformed practice that they could start today to support their nervous system and their overall wellbeing? 

Dr. Sonja - So you're doing it anyway. So I'm just going to bring your attention to it. There's something called a physiologic sigh. And what this is something that you do all other humans do. Animals do this. It is the reaction when you've heard something, you've witnessed something or you remembered something and it just went to your nervous system. And what your body is doing a little again. It's a knock on your prefrontal cortex by taking those deep inhalations and that big exhale is pushing on your vagus nerve. So it's the fastest, most efficient and effective way of you getting things back in front of you and perspective. So we can do this on purpose by taking two really good inhales through your nose and then a very long exhale out through your mouth and pushing down on your diaphragm and your belly. 

Dr. Sonja - Three to five cycles of that you might even, if it's available to you, depending on where you are, offer yourself a moment of self-soothing by holding your hand on your heart, holding yourself. This is just you giving yourself that moment of, it's okay, this is hard. So these are really lovely ways to get through a challenging moment as well as also just bringing again your brain back online and so that you can remember other things to do or ways to reach out in those moments where it can be feeling overwhelming. So it moves you just a little bit through that space. 

Dr. Marie - I love it. I use the sigh all the time. Sometimes so much so that my daughter or my partner will say, what's with the sigh? I'm like, well, you know, just letting something go.

Dr. Sonja - And we can't unhear it, by the way, now that you know that's what you're doing. 

Dr. Marie - Totally.

Dr. Sonja - Notice it. What just triggered you? What just knocked on you that made you sigh and you're going to hear it from others and get curious, why are you sighing? Right. It just. They don't know that they even sigh. Something just happened for them and helping them to know that, hey, wait a minute, I noticed that and I care about that. Tell me. Right. What a beautiful way of just normalizing that. We're going through stuff all the time and we're not alone. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah. Goes back to that social connection. Well, before I ask you the closing question that we ask all of our guests, I want to talk about the exciting news that you recently shared, which is that your second book is going to be published soon. So wonderful for the veterinary profession. Could you tell us a bit more about the book and where people can look for it if they'd like to pre order a copy? 

Dr. Sonja - Yeah. Thank you, Marie. This is one of these experiences. I know others have had this where you feel like you're birthing a baby. Okay. Some of us have actually birthed babies, Marie. But some of us have not. This is my version of birthing a baby. Something that was so important to me and that Jess dated and was there for me to really think through and bring into the world. You know, it takes time. And the book is built to be the how. I think we're much more informed as a veterinary community these days around the what. We've got some great language, we've got research papers coming forward and initiatives being built. Mwah. Chef's kiss. Amazing. Okay, what about us as individuals, as teams, and as practices and organizations continuing to build our language and our practices and strategies. So I have created a workbook. 

Dr. Sonja - So this is meant to be really evoking the idea that we're on an adventure together. And it's an arduous journey. It is not an easy one. We're going trekking up that mountain. We're going to get prepared. We're going to go ahead and practice. We're going to call in our team, our squad, and we're going to have some knowledge around our limits. What to do when. When I hit a barrier or I get injured, I need first aid. And then how to maybe find a different way, a different approach to keep going. So the book's title is your veterinary Wellness journey, An interactive guide to thriving with growth, resilience and purpose. It's a long title. I was told by the editor, she's like, we want it to be searchable. So yes, it's very searchable. 

Dr. Sonja - The idea being that it's meant to be a choose your adventure reach in as an individual or as a team. Get curious. There's a crap ton of resources in this book as well. Assessments for data gathering and so many links to communities and resources around the world. So this is meant to be our global veterinary profession. Choosing awareness, practice strategies and collective resilience. Marie,. 

Dr. Marie - I love it. Well, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. We'll be sure to link to the pre orders in the show notes as well. One last question, Sonja, that we ask all of our guests on the podcast is what does the phrase reviving veterinary medicine mean to you? 

Dr. Sonja - So when I say that to myself, when I hear reviving, we're reclaiming and in a new way as well. So we are stronger together, we are smarter together. We are not doing this alone. That's what I think of, is that this is us really defining who we are and who we want to be together. 

Dr. Marie - I love it. Well, thank you so much for all of your wisdom and advice. That you shared with us today. It was just so wonderful to have this conversation with you. 

Dr. Sonja - Thank you so much Marie. Yeah, great. 

Dr. Marie - So that's it for this episode of Reviving Vet Med. I hope you found this conversation with Sonja insightful and encouraging. Stress is an inevitable part of veterinary medicine, but as we discussed today, understanding how our brains and nervous systems respond to distress can open the door to new tools for resilience, recovery and sustainable well being. If you'd like to learn more about Sonya's work, including her coaching, speaking and upcoming book, you can visit her website and social media pages which we've linked to in the show notes. 

Dr. Marie - And if you know someone else in. 

Dr. Marie - Vet medicine who might benefit from hearing this conversation during National Stress Awareness Month, please consider sharing this episode with them. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss future episodes and leave a rating and review. It really does help more people discover the show. You can also visit RevivingVetMed.com for free downloads, blog posts and other evidence based tools to support well being in vet medicine. And follow us on instagram @revivingvetmed. A huge thank you to Dr. Sonja Olson for joining us today to Podcast Prime Solutions for producing this episode and to you, the listener, for being a part of this community. Until next time, take care of yourself. Bye for now.