b'EMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, VETERINARY WOMAN CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGEACHIEVE & LEAD TOGETHERGunila PedersenSMALL ANIMAL VET AND MASTER CERTIFIED LIFE COACHGunila Pedersen is a small animal vet and Master Certified Life Coach, whose own experiences motivated her to coach other vets at a high level, offering one-to-one coaching, webinars and workshops. She was nominated as a Champion for Change by fellow vet, Silke Haen, who described how through being very open, Gunila created a business that serves pets the best: vets who love their job and stay in their job. Read on to find out more about Gunilas approach and how she supports other veterinary women to enjoy the career theyve worked so hard for.Please summarise how you are working towards changeWhat motivated you to want to change things? in the veterinary professions and why do you feel this My own burnout, and seeing how much life coaching changed is important?my life.Vet med is a challenging profession, and we need tools toHow have you encouraged other peopleavoid stress and burnout. The truth is, if youre emotionally to get on board with your ideas? S U M M A R Y and mentally strong you can deal with anything and conserveI always try to show people that their current experience Ibecame a veterinary surgeon in 2004,your joy and sanity.doesnt HAVE to stay the same, that they can feel much better and owned my own clinic for 9 years. IOur education system does not prepare us at any point for thewithout changing anything in their life. I show through my own got burnt out and left vet med for a year,challenges of life. Our brains have simply not evolved to dealexperience, and talk about my clients journeys.during which I discovered life coaching. properly with modern life combined with the randomness of I nitially I sought help to become aveterinary medicine, and its no wonder so many vets struggle better mum for my teenage daughters,with anxiety, stress and burnout. You shouldnt have a stomach as I felt our relationship was spinningache going to work, nor lay awake at night worrying about out of control. The byproduct wascases and clients, but that is the day to day of a lot of the vets I that I became so at peace with myselfmeet and coach.and enthusiastic about life again that I started missing vet med.Through life coaching we can learn the tools to build I became an ER vet and enjoyed it soemotional and mental resilience, and have fun working in the career most of us dreamt about since we were kids.much that I decided to help other veterinarians fall in love with theirHow do you feel this is making a difference?career again.Feeling calm, confident and enthusiastic at work makes all I got certified as a life coach, andthe difference in our perception of veterinary life. This doesntam passionate about helping othersmean we dont need to make changes in the profession such overcome burnout and enjoy life again. as better working hours, salary, etc., but we dont need to feel I still work in ER and have a lot of funlike wrung out dishcloths while we work on those changes! The combining it with my coaching business! change truly starts within.www.veterinarywoman.co.uk 39'