Veterinary Compassion Project

Dr. Judy Morgan DVM, CVA, CVCP, CVFT has over 40-years-experience as an integrative veterinarian, acupuncturist, chiropractor, food therapist, best-selling author, international speaker, podcast host and owner of Dr. Judy Morgan’s Naturally Healthy Pets. Her goal is to change the lives of pets by educating and empowering pet parents worldwide in the use of natural healing therapies, and minimizing the use of chemicals, vaccinations, and poor-quality processed food.

Dr. Judy Morgan also has a long list of stunning accomplishments in and around the pet industry including: 

- 2018 Woman of the Year in the Pet Industry

- 2019 Pet Age Woman of Influence

- 2019 IAOTP Veterinarian of the Year

- 2019 Veterinarian Hero Award Nominee

- 2021 IAOTP Empowered Woman of the Year

- 2022 Game Changer Award Winner 

- 2023 People's Choice Award Winner

- 2024 IAOTP Holistic Veterinarian of the Decade

In This Interview:

- What drew Judy to veterinary medicine? 

- The common passion for helping animals amongst aspiring veterinarians

- Navigating tough conversations

- What do you wish someone prepared you for?

- Owning your own clinic

- Why you have to be willing to say “No"

- The challenges of owning your own practice

- Shifting out of negativity and into gratitude

- The VCP Retreat

- Scholarships opportunities

Interview Resources:

NaturallyHealthyPets.com

DrJudyMorgan.com

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/JudyMorganDVM

IG: @drjudymorgan

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@DrJudyMorgan

VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/

Check out Dr. Judy’s most recent best-selling books, Raising Naturally Healthy Pets: A Guide to Helping Your Pets Live Longer and Keeping Your Pets Naturally Healthy: Holistic Care and Nutrition for Dogs and Cats available on DrJudyMorgan.com or on Amazon.

At Veterinary Compassion Project we believe that those who dedicate their lives to caring for animals deserve the same compassion and care they give to others. We are committed to raising awareness about the extreme emotional toll that comes with animal caregiving while providing essential support for your wellbeing. Through our resources, community, and guidance, we aim to empower veterinarians and animal care professionals to thrive both personally and professionally.

📍 Visit Us Online: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com

🔹 VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/ 

📞 Join Our Monthly Support Call: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/resources/

IG: @veterinarycompassionproject

FB: facebook.com/veterinarycompassionproject

YouTube: youtube.com/@veterinarycompassionproject

More about Dr. Erin Holder: 

At the heart of our mission is Dr. Erin Holder, a compassionate healer and esteemed veterinarian dedicated to supporting animal caregivers. With a passion for holistic care and a deep understanding of compassion fatigue, Dr. Holder leads our efforts to empower those who devote their lives to helping animals.

In 2004, Dr. Holder founded one of the largest integrative veterinary hospitals in North America where she pioneered a holistic approach to animal care. Certified in Veterinary Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Food Therapy, Chinese Tui-Na, Animal Ozone Therapy, and Animal Reiki, Dr. Holder’s hospital provided comprehensive care to a wide variety of animals, including cats, dogs, birds, exotics, and wildlife.

After nearly two decades of serving animals and their caregivers, Dr. Holder made the difficult decision to sell her hospital in 2022 to address her own experience with compassion fatigue. In her own personal healing, she immersed herself in studying why compassion fatigue happens, how to prevent it, and ways overcome it. She completed certifications in meditation instruction and compassion fatigue training for healthcare professionals, dedicating herself to helping others navigate the emotional toll of veterinary work.

See you on the next one!

Lynn Thomas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, receiving her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Utah in 1995. She first developed a program integrating horses as a primary treatment component while serving as Executive Director of Aspen Ranch. Lynn co-founded Eagala, the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, in 1999 and co-founded and presently serves as CEO of Arenas for Change (ARCH), an organization focused on a values-based community learning and supporting one another in facilitation concepts that increase emotional safety.

Thanks to the work over the years of Lynn and her team, involving horses in psychotherapy sessions has gone from a little-known approach to a widely accepted and credible mental health option, backed by research.

With Lynn’s experience, vision, and passion for the impact horses have on well-being, she co-founded Horses for Mental Health (HMH) in 2021 to build momentum, expand the movement, and uplift programs worldwide to impact and strengthen global mental health through horses.

In This Interview:

- The transformational power of being in the heart field with horses

- What is Horses for Mental Health?

- How taking better care of ourselves helps our communities

- Why we need to bring awareness to the struggles we're facing

- Why work with horses for your mental health? 

- Horses for Mental Health resources to support your mental health journey

Interview Resources:

Arenas for Change: arenasforchange.com

Horses for Mental Health: horsesformentalhealth.org

YouTube: YouTube.com/@horsesformentalhealth

VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/

At Veterinary Compassion Project we believe that those who dedicate their lives to caring for animals deserve the same compassion and care they give to others. We are committed to raising awareness about the extreme emotional toll that comes with animal caregiving while providing essential support for your wellbeing. Through our resources, community, and guidance, we aim to empower veterinarians and animal care professionals to thrive both personally and professionally.

📍 Visit Us Online: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com

🔹 VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/ 

📞 Join Our Monthly Support Call: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/resources/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veterinarycompassionproject

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veterinarycompassionproject/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0zXWwEO6ZDjOQ7YeC8ZYuV?si=Q2jVYLdzSqy_qLROQTOIQw

More about Dr. Erin Holder: 

At the heart of our mission is Dr. Erin Holder, a compassionate healer and esteemed veterinarian dedicated to supporting animal caregivers. With a passion for holistic care and a deep understanding of compassion fatigue, Dr. Holder leads our efforts to empower those who devote their lives to helping animals.

In 2004, Dr. Holder founded one of the largest integrative veterinary hospitals in North America where she pioneered a holistic approach to animal care. Certified in Veterinary Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Food Therapy, Chinese Tui-Na, Animal Ozone Therapy, and Animal Reiki, Dr. Holder’s hospital provided comprehensive care to a wide variety of animals, including cats, dogs, birds, exotics, and wildlife.

After nearly two decades of serving animals and their caregivers, Dr. Holder made the difficult decision to sell her hospital in 2022 to address her own experience with compassion fatigue. In her own personal healing, she immersed herself in studying why compassion fatigue happens, how to prevent it, and ways overcome it. She completed certifications in meditation instruction and compassion fatigue training for healthcare professionals, dedicating herself to helping others navigate the emotional toll of veterinary work.

See you on the next one!

Angie Arora, MSW, RSW, is a social worker supporting the human needs that arise from human-animal relationships, specializing in veterinary wellbeing, pet loss, and equity issues within veterinary medicine. As a Veterinary Social Worker and Certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist, she provides trauma-informed support, coaching, and psycho-educational training to veterinary professionals and organizations to improve professional quality of life by addressing issues of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue.

She served on the inaugural Board of Directors for the International Association of Veterinary Social Work and is actively involved in other relevant veterinary medicine initiatives including blendVET, the International Association of Veterinary Social Work and the Canadian Collective for Equity in Veterinary Medicine. Her current organizational clients include the Toronto Zoo, King Animal Hospital, ACCT Philly, as well as several veterinary practices across North America.

In This Interview: 

- The hidden gift of grief

- Changing the landscape of veterinary wellness

- The rude awakening that is unresolved traumatic stress and burnout

- The telltale signs of compassion fatigue

- The unspoken trauma of being in the veterinary field

- The power of holding space and being heard

- Reconnecting to Self and cultivating inner safety

- What is veterinary social work

- How stressful experiences shape us and show up in our practice

- The healing energy of community

- Boundaries as an expression of self compassion

Interview Resources:

More about Angie: https://www.angiearora.com/

Follow Angie: @veterinarywellbeingcoach

VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/

At Veterinary Compassion Project we believe that those who dedicate their lives to caring for animals deserve the same compassion and care they give to others. We are committed to raising awareness about the extreme emotional toll that comes with animal caregiving while providing essential support for your wellbeing. Through our resources, community, and guidance, we aim to empower veterinarians and animal care professionals to thrive both personally and professionally.

📍 Visit Us Online: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com

🔹 VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/ 

📞 Join Our Monthly Support Call: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/resources/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veterinarycompassionproject

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veterinarycompassionproject/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0zXWwEO6ZDjOQ7YeC8ZYuV?si=Q2jVYLdzSqy_qLROQTOIQw

More about Dr. Erin Holder: 

At the heart of our mission is Dr. Erin Holder, a compassionate healer and esteemed veterinarian dedicated to supporting animal caregivers. With a passion for holistic care and a deep understanding of compassion fatigue, Dr. Holder leads our efforts to empower those who devote their lives to helping animals.

In 2004, Dr. Holder founded one of the largest integrative veterinary hospitals in North America where she pioneered a holistic approach to animal care. Certified in Veterinary Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Food Therapy, Chinese Tui-Na, Animal Ozone Therapy, and Animal Reiki, Dr. Holder’s hospital provided comprehensive care to a wide variety of animals, including cats, dogs, birds, exotics, and wildlife.

After nearly two decades of serving animals and their caregivers, Dr. Holder made the difficult decision to sell her hospital in 2022 to address her own experience with compassion fatigue. In her own personal healing, she immersed herself in studying why compassion fatigue happens, how to prevent it, and ways overcome it. She completed certifications in meditation instruction and compassion fatigue training for healthcare professionals, dedicating herself to helping others navigate the emotional toll of veterinary work.

See you on the next one!

Sheva Carr joins us in this very special Veterinary Compassion Project interview with Dr. Erin Holder.

Sheva is a visionary, humanitarian, creator, author, speaker, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, expert HeartMath trainer and coach, and has taught hundreds of online courses in her role as founder and CEO of Heart Ambassadors. Sheva speaks to people all over the world on how to access heart intelligence and peace of mind in order to receive the benefits of the heart’s impact on their relationships, health, performance, creativity, contribution, legacy, social change, and the building of a global culture of peace.

In This Interview: 

- Sheva's Story: The Road to HeartMath

- Sheva's Story: From Loss and Grief to Love and Gratitude

- What is HeartMath?

- A Brief Meditation for Heart Coherence 

- Why Veterinary Compassion Project?

- What is Heart Ambassadors?

- The Driving Stress in Veterinary Medicine and Why We Need to Talk About It

- What Happens When Profit Takes Priority Over Care?

- Why Do So Many in Veterinary Medicine Face the Darkness of Suicide?

- Connecting To Our Heart As the Vehicle For Connecting to Others

- Continuing Education Resources from HeartMath

Interview Resources:

Heart Ambassadors: https://pages.heartambassadors.com/

HeartMath: https://www.heartmath.org/

VCP Restorative Retreat 2026: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/retreat/

At Veterinary Compassion Project we believe that those who dedicate their lives to caring for animals deserve the same compassion and care they give to others. We are committed to raising awareness about the extreme emotional toll that comes with animal caregiving while providing essential support for your wellbeing. Through our resources, community, and guidance, we aim to empower veterinarians and animal care professionals to thrive both personally and professionally.

📍 Visit Us Online: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com

📞 Join Our Monthly Support Call: https://www.veterinarycompassionproject.com/resources/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veterinarycompassionproject

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/veterinarycompassionproject/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VeterinaryCompassionProject

More about Dr. Erin Holder: 

At the heart of our mission is Dr. Erin Holder, a compassionate healer and esteemed veterinarian dedicated to supporting animal caregivers. With a passion for holistic care and a deep understanding of compassion fatigue, Dr. Holder leads our efforts to empower those who devote their lives to helping animals.

Dr. Holder graduated with honors from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in 2002 where she received the Lerner Family Wildlife Conservation Award and the Bird Fanciers Scholarship for her dedication to wildlife conservation. Her groundbreaking research on cheetahs and early renal disease detection won international acclaim and was published in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine.

In 2004, Dr. Holder founded her integrative veterinary hospital where she pioneered a holistic approach to animal care. Certified in Veterinary Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine, Food Therapy, Chinese Tui-Na, Animal Ozone Therapy, and Animal Reiki, Dr. Holder’s hospital provided comprehensive care to a wide variety of animals, including cats, dogs, birds, exotics, and wildlife. Her innovative work was even featured on the debut series of National Geographic Wild’s Unlikely Animal Friends.

After nearly two decades of serving animals and their caregivers, Dr. Holder made the difficult decision to sell her hospital in 2022 to address her own experience with compassion fatigue. In her own personal healing, she immersed herself in studying compassion fatigue. She completed certifications in meditation instruction and compassion fatigue training for healthcare professionals, dedicating herself to helping others navigate the emotional toll of veterinary work.

See you on the next one! 🩵

There is so much chronic illness in the US that cannot be explained and justified with physical ailments and symptoms alone. There is undoubtedly a connection of the emotions with the physical body, a mind-body connection.

New name, expanded mission and a kick a** website.

How does one keep up the momentum and vigor for a profession long into it? Especially one as difficult as the veterinary medicine.

The veterinary community is starting to realize that we are in real trouble. We are headed towards a massive vet shortage in an already overworked profession. Veterinarians are strong enough now to ask for help and be vulnerable because the alternative is too painful to contemplate. The time is now to make changes within our profession and we must join together to seek a better way of life.

But how do we wake up? How do we stop sleepwalking through life before decades have flown by? The answer is way more simple than you can imagine.

Nothing could have prepared us for what we faced getting our animals to Hawaii and for the most part we kept our sense of humor. It wasn’t until the end that we began to lose it, replaced with fear and fatigue. These are, after all, our family members and we would never leave a man behind.