Sonja Olson | Veterinary Wellness Educator, Speaker, Coach
Heartstorming Wellness LLC
Dr. Sonja Olson is a passionate veterinary wellness coach, educator, and emergency room veterinarian with over 25 years of experience. She specializes in helping individuals and teams within the veterinary field navigate stress, find balance, and cultivate emotional well-being. Combining evidence-based neuroplasticity coaching, mindfulness, and her clinical expertise, Dr. Olson creates compassionate, transformative spaces that empower her clients and audiences to thrive both personally and professionally. Through her innovative 1:1 'heartstorming sessions,' keynote presentations, webinars, and resilience-focused writings, she shares practical tools to manage change, enhance self-awareness, and foster meaningful connections. As a certified mindfulness meditation teacher, neuroinformed coach, and Mental Health First Aid instructor, she is dedicated to inspiring calmer, kinder, and more resilient communities. Dr. Olson’s mission is to harness the innate human potential for healing and growth, guiding veterinary professionals toward a healthier, optimized way of living. When not actively involved in these endeavors, she loves spending time outside (all seasons), playing board games, supporting her local humane society, and enjoying yummy vegetarian food.
Appearances:
Day 1 @ 13:00
The transformational power of intentional communication and relationship-centered care in Veterinary practice
Building trust and relationships within veterinary teams and with veterinary clients has never been more critical. Effective, relationship-centered communication can support the engagement of veterinary teams, the occupational wellness of veterinary professionals, and the sustainable health of veterinary businesses. This presentation will explore common communication challenges and their impacts and then build awareness and skills around intentional communication, active listening, empathy in communication, and relationship-building techniques.
Fostering a culture of trust, respect, and healthy interactions between colleagues and with clients enhances professional satisfaction and quality of care provided to veterinary patients honoring the human-animal bond.
Learning Objectives:
· Clarifying communication challenges and barriers and understanding the impacts
· Build knowledge and understand techniques that fortify effective, intentional communication
· Explore the elements and strategies of relationship-centered care and communication that can foster trust and support patient care in veterinary practice environments.
Day 2 @ 09:30
Access to care in Veterinary Medicine: Current understanding and building moral resiliency in veterinary teams
Access to veterinary care refers to the ability of individuals to obtain necessary health services for animals in their care, companion or otherwise. Barriers to care encompass not just financial aspects, but also factors like geographic location, availability of services, and cultural competence of healthcare providers. Moral distress occurs when healthcare professionals know the ethically appropriate action to take but are constrained from taking it, leading to emotional and psychological stress. In veterinary medicine these scenarios may be a direct result of inadequate access to care.
During this presentation we will explore these connections as we understand it in the profession currently, but also to look at how individuals and teams can address these scenarios to work towards improved occupational wellness and build moral resiliency.
Topics discussed will include reframing team approaches to the spectrum of care, palliative care and humane euthanasia as strategies for improving animal welfare as well as Self-Care and Professional Support.
We will also explore resources that can be implemented by teams to provide support for different barriers to care including: financial flexibility, language accommodations, and cultural competency.
Learning objectives
· Define “Access to Care” and “Moral Distress” to explore the interconnectedness between these two concepts in clinical practice
· Outline and quantify the impacts of barriers to veterinary care and the subsequent moral injury impacts on a practice, community, and profession-wide level.
· Discuss strategies that can be applied on an individual or team level to address challenges to access to care and how to cultivate moral resiliency.
Day 2 @ 12:30
Occupational wellness in veterinary medicine: a systems-level approach to sustainable practice
Veterinary professionals are more than their job titles—they are whole humans operating in complex systems. This session introduces the “wellness wheel” as a framework for examining the multi-dimensional nature of wellbeing, with a focus on the often-overlooked occupational wellness wedge. Dr. Olson will share research and insights from veterinary and global health literature, offering a roadmap for shifting from reactive stress management to proactive occupational wellness. Attendees will leave with ideas for personal reflection, team discussions, and systemic interventions that promote long-term sustainability in veterinary practice.
Learning Objectives:
Understand the eight dimensions of wellness and how they relate to workplace performance
Learn how to assess and support occupational wellness at all levels of the organization
Develop systems and practices that foster resilience, engagement, and purpose
Contact us
Sponsorship Enquiries
Ellen.phelan@terrapinn.com
Speaking Enquiries
Amanda.liversage@terrapinn.com
Marketing Enquiries
natalie.mcclelland@terrapinn.com
Chinese Sales Enquiries
zhengyumeng@cccmhpie.org.cn
Startup Enquiries
Meg.OBrien@terrapinn.com
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