The Resilient Vet: Mind and Body Strategies for Success

When Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, asked approximately 500 veterinary professionals at a veterinary conference session how many regularly worked in pain because of the physical demands of their jobs, every hand in the room went up. The response highlighted a problem that Shaw and co-host Jennifer Edwards, DVM, PCC, CPC, ELI-MP, say has become too accepted in veterinary medicine. In this episode of The Resilient Vet: Mind and Body Strategies for Success, they explore why veterinary work can take such a physical toll and discuss the roles of ergonomics, body mechanics, and strength training in helping veterinary professionals build more sustainable careers.

You can reach out to Shaw at [email protected] and Edwards at j[email protected].

Knowing one should say no is one thing. Actually doing it — when someone is standing right in front of a person expecting a yes — is something else entirely. In Part 2 of the “Wired to say yes” Resilient Vet podcast series, cohost Jennifer Edwards, DVM, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP, brings in her CORE Element framework, a framework for intentional life and leadership, to explore what reclaimed agency actually looks like in practice, alongside Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS. From understanding what one is truly responsible for to holding a parameter without it becoming a confrontation, this episode is about moving from awareness into action.

Most veterinary professionals are highly skilled at saying yes, and it may come at a greater cost than many realize. In this first episode of a two-part series, cohost Jennifer Edwards, DVM, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP, goes beneath the surface of burnout and overaccommodation to explore where the inability to say no actually comes from. Spoiler: it starts long before veterinary school. For those who have felt guilty for having limits or wondered why saying no can feel threatening, this conversation is where that story starts to make sense.

In veterinary medicine, being the person who always comes through is often celebrated, until it starts costing more than it's worth. In this episode of The Resilient Vet: Mind and Body Strategies for Success, cohosts Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, and Jennifer Edwards, DVM, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP, examine chronic over-accommodation—a habit that gets rewarded in veterinary medicine while quietly depleting the people who practice it. Edwards introduces the concept of the "pathologic accommodator," breaks down how the pattern develops, and offers a practical path forward through grounded self-advocacy: honoring personal values and communicating with clarity without abandoning accommodation altogether.

The instinct when something isn't working is to fix the behavior, but according to Jennifer Edwards, DVM, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP, that is often where the fix goes wrong. In this episode of The Resilient Vet: Mind and Body Strategies for Success, Edwards breaks down the CORE Element Framework, a conscious leadership model she created that locates the real driver of outcomes not in what people do, but in how they're thinking, feeling, and perceiving long before they ever act. Co-host Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, asks Edwards on what this looks like inside a real clinic, where difficult conversations get avoided, frustration builds quietly, and patterns tend to repeat regardless of who's in the room. The conversation explores how developing conscious awareness, ownership, and intentional response can shift leadership outcomes in clinical settings, and why addressing the cause rather than the effect is what actually creates lasting change.

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