Beyond Compassion Fatigue: Make Your Passion for Helping Animals Sustainable!

Warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, overdose, and death by suicide. Please take care of yourself while listening. You are always welcome to skip this episode or step away if the content feels overwhelming.

Suicide is a difficult subject, but one we can’t afford to avoid.

In this episode, I share an excerpt from Chapter five of Beyond Compassion Fatigue: Trauma, Resilienc...

In this episode, I’m joined by Melissa Sherman and Sunny Gandara, hosts of The Whole Pack Podcast, for a conversation about the emotional side of caring for animals. We explore how compassion fatigue can show up in less obvious animal-care roles, why the accumulation of small emotional experiences can be just as significant as major crises, and what happens when our passion makes it difficult to set boundaries.

We talk about ...

If you're someone who struggles with saying no, setting limits, or putting your own needs on the list, this episode is for you.

In animal care, welfare, rescue, vet med, and activism, boundaries can be particularly complicated. When you're surrounded by animals who need help and people who are struggling, it can be incredibly easy to fall into the belief that you have to keep giving—...

On today's episode, I talk with animal advocate and longtime radio personality Holly Haze, whose journey into rescue began with a dog named Taco. After sharing Taco's story on social media and learning that he had been euthanized, Holly realized that awareness alone wasn't enough—she needed to do more.

That moment sparked a mission that eventually led to Furry Friday, a weekly radio feature highlighting shelter animals in nee...

In this episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue Podcast, I explore one of the most misunderstood and least talked about experiences in animal welfare work: emotional numbness.

Many animal care professionals, rescuers, advocates, veterinary staff, shelter workers, wildlife rehabilitators, trainers, and activists eventually reach a point where they stop reacting emotionally the way they once did. Cases that used to keep them awake at ni...

Lost dog recovery is a race against time, fueled by hope, heartbreak, patience, and perseverance. In this episode, I’m joined by Holly Fontaine, an award-winning animal advocate from Connecticut and volunteer with Connecticut Dog Gone Recovery. Holly spends countless hours helping frightened, lost dogs find their way back home, often under difficult and emotionally demanding circumstances.

Holly shares what drew her into lost...

On today's episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue, I read a snippet from my forthcoming book of the same name. This reading is from chapter one: Pain versus Suffering. Want even more? Click here to download a free Sneak Peek Bundle which features the introduction, chapter one, and chapter six!

Beyond Compassion Fatigue: Trauma, Resilience, and Recovery in Animal Care and Advocacy publishes February 9, 2027 but is available for pre-or...

Working in animal welfare and behavior can be incredibly rewarding—but it can also take a significant emotional toll. In this episode, I sit down with Carol Sumbry, a Certified Behavior Consultant, Force-Free Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Trauma-Informed Approach Professional, Therapy Dog Evaluator, and Family Dog Mediator™, to discuss the realities of compassion fatigue in behavior work and the importance of finding su...

In this episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue, I open up about a recent emotional meltdown that left me overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts, painful memories, and a dysregulated nervous system. After struggling to calm down, I finally turned to a surprisingly simple grounding technique called cognitive shuffling, a science-backed tool that helped me settle down.

I explore how intrusive thoughts, trauma memories, grief, chronic stress,...

In this episode, I sit down with Kelly Motter for an honest conversation about sustainable fostering, boundaries in animal rescue, and the emotional weight that comes with caring deeply for animals in need.

If you’ve ever struggled with guilt for saying “no,” felt overwhelmed by the endless need in rescue, or wondered how to continue helping animals without completely burning yourself out, this episode is for you.

In this solo episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue, I talk about my rescue goat, Gracie, and how she represent compassion satisfaction—the joy, meaning, and fulfillment that comes from helping animals and making a difference.

I share Gracie’s rescue story and explore how animal welfare professionals and advocates can experience both burnout and deep fulfillment at the same time. Drawing on research, personal reflection, ...

In this eye-opening episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue, I sit down with veterinary receptionist and animal advocate Sam Anderkay to explore the often-overlooked emotional toll carried by veterinary support staff.

Sam shares her journey from volunteering at Valley of the Kings Wildlife Sanctuary and Retreat, where she cared for abused and neglected tigers, wolves, bears, and farm animals, to spending nearly eight years on the fron...

Today’s episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue is a guided meditation designed specifically for those of you in animal care, rescue, welfare, veterinary medicine, and activism to help you regulate your nervous system.

This meditation is meant to be listened to in a safe, quiet place where you can fully relax for about ten minutes. So if you’re driving or in the middle of something that requires your full attention, I invi...

In this episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue, I explore a powerful mindset shift that can dramatically reduce burnout in animal care, rescue, veterinary medicine, and advocacy: dialectical thinking, also known as both/and thinking.

If you’ve ever felt like you had to choose between being hopeful or being realistic, strong or struggling, this episode challenges that belief.

We discuss: 

• What dialectical (both/and) th...

In this episode of Beyond Compassion Fatigue, I sit down with Lisa Beggio, Executive Director of Columbia Humane Society, to discuss her deeply personal journey through primary trauma, PTSD, and healing after surviving a life-threatening dog attack while working in animal rescue.

Lisa shares what it was like to return to shelter work after trauma, the reality of PTSD triggers in a field built around exposure to suffering, and how t...

Last week, we explored the external risk factors of compassion fatigue—the systems, environments, and conditions surrounding animal welfare work.

This week, we turn inward.

Compassion fatigue doesn’t just come from what you’re exposed to, it’s also shaped by who you are: your personality, your experiences, and the traits that likely drew you to this work in the first place.

This episode takes an honest look ...

In part one of this two-part mini-series, I talk about some of the external risk factors that can make people in animal care, welfare, rescue, vet med, and activism more vulnerable to developing compassion fatigue.

We'll explore:

• How our environment, workplace, community, culture, and other outside risk factors make us more susceptible to developing compassion fatigue. 
• The problem with "too much and not enough." 
• My...

In this episode, I sit down with Rob Leinberger, a long-time animal control officer and current manager of Prince George County Animal Services and Adoption Center in Virginia. Rob brings years of frontline experience and leadership insight into the often-overlooked emotional realities of animal control work.

We talk about how Rob was first introduced to the concept of compassion fatigue—and what it looked like before he even...

In part two of this mini-series, we move beyond nervous system regulation and into practical, in-the-moment communication strategies for handling conflict with the public.

If you work in animal care, welfare, rescue, vet med, or activism and you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, frustrated, or even unsafe during a tense interaction, this episode gives you tools you can actually use right in the moment.

These are the skills that help ...