When you’re the one in the room
Support for the families you care for, and for the team that carries it.
The appointment families remember
Most of what happens in a veterinary practice fades. This doesn’t.
Families recall the euthanasia appointment in detail years later — whether they had a private space, was it quiet, who was in the room, what was said, whether they felt rushed, whether anyone acknowledged what was happening. It’s the single most consequential moment in the veterinary-client-patient relationship, and it is quietly the main determinant on whether a family returns with their next animal or goes somewhere else without ever telling you why.
It’s also the appointment that follows your team home. “30% to 40% of veterinarians experience high levels of burnout. For support teams and veterinary technicians, that number climbs sharply, with 60% to 70% reporting active burnout symptoms” (CoVet, June 2026).
You can’t make the appointment longer — there’s another one in an hour and another after that. But the support around it doesn’t have to end when the room is turned over.
Where doula support fits
I work in the space your appointment can’t reach — the weeks before a decision, and the months after a loss.
Before the appointment
Quality of life conversations that give families language for what they’re already sensing. Decision support when a family is stuck between guilt and love. Preparation for children, so parents aren’t improvising. Planning what the goodbye will look like, so families arrive knowing what they want rather than deciding under pressure in your exam room.
At the appointment
Presence alongside a family who needs support, or with their animal when a family can’t be there. This is companionship, not clinical involvement — your team leads the medicine and the room.
After the loss
Grief companionship for adults, children, and families. Follow-up in the weeks when the world expects them to be fine. Support for the clients whose grief is bigger than the appointment could hold.
Three ways clinics work with me
Referral partnership
A place to send families who need more than an appointment can hold. Published rates and a free discovery conversation mean you can refer confidently — without vetting each time, or worrying about what it’ll cost them. Referral cards and a short team briefing so everyone at the front desk knows what they’re offering.
Co-brandable client resources
Aftercare handouts, preparation guides, and children’s materials your clinic can put its name on — something to put in a family’s hands as they leave, designed to reflect your practice, not mine.
Team support and workshops
Psychoeducational sessions built for veterinary teams: post-euthanasia debriefs, compassion fatigue, difficult conversations, and the cumulative weight of this work. Not adapted from human healthcare, and not a wellness poster in the break room.
A note on what this service is – and isn’t
This work is psychoeducational and doula-based. It’s not clinical counselling, therapy, or veterinary medical advice, and it doesn’t intersect with your medical decision-making or your relationship with the client. My role is companionship, preparation, and grief education — everything that sits around the care your team provides, never inside it.
Start with a conversation
A free 15–20 minute meeting — no pressure, nothing to prepare. Just a chance to say where you are and work out together whether this kind of support would help.
Book a conversation