Vetamorphosis™
Vetamorphosis is dedicated to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of the veterinary community.
Providing psychotherapeutic counselling (therapy), coaching and therapeutic coaching,
Vetamorphosis exists to empower change.
Perhaps you are a…
Clinical director finding people management stressful
Practice manager feeling overwhelmed by work but feel you ‘should’ be able to cope
Mid-career vet or nurse feeling disillusioned with practice
Vet nurse struggling after a relationship breakdown
Recent graduate feeling lonely and isolated
Vet student finding social anxiety distressing
Vet facing a complaint about a difficult and stressful case
Resident concerned you are nearing ‘burn out’
Vet physio struggling to drive again after a car accident
Farm vet nearing retirement and wondering "What's next?"
...Vetamorphosis can help
How Vetamorphosis can help
Vetamorphosis offers you a trusted, confidential relationship where:
- the focus is on you, your situation and how you feel about it
- you can fully articulate your thoughts and emotions, without being judged
- other perspectives are offered that may challenge your assumptions or limiting beliefs
This enables you to:
- clarify your understanding of your situation
- help you to see the ‘wood for the trees’
- find options to solve your problem/find a way ahead (without being ’advised’ about what to do or directed towards a particular approach/solution)
About Me
Philippa Welsh
BVSc PG Cert (Vet Edu) Dip HIC UKCP reg. MRCVS
Vetamorphosis Founding Director
Hi, I’m Philippa. As a veterinary surgeon with 15 years of clinical experience, I know the challenges of the profession intimately.
My own personal journey through professional ‘burn out’ from my residency training in small animal medicine (over a decade ago) inspires me in the work I do today. Following an initially devastating experience of burn out, I went through a period of significant personal change, supported by both coaches and counsellors. On re-entering the profession and finding my home back in practice as a vet, clinical mentor and educator, I began thriving.
However, two severe sports injuries in quick succession took me out of clinical practice permanently and (supported by my work in veterinary education) I changed tack: embarking on a long and in-depth psychotherapeutic counselling training. As a volunteer listener on Vetlife Helpline for 6 years (www.vetlife.org.uk), hearing the varied struggles of fellow veterinary community members, I was determined to use my experiences to support others in the veterinary profession.
I’m dual-qualified as a psychotherapeutic counsellor and coach, and I have been mentoring and coaching since 2017, and working as a counsellor since 2020. I was a counsellor for Cotswold Counselling – a charity in Cirencester – for three years (March 2020 to February 2023), alongside establishing a busy private counselling practice. I am a Registered Member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), with well over 1000 hours of supervised complex client work.
My vision is to help create a supportive veterinary professional culture where every individual can maximise their potential and thrive in their chosen career.
Experienced, Dual-Qualified Counsellor and Coach
I am an experienced and highly qualified professional counsellor, coach and mentor. As a vet with 15 years in both first opinion and referral clinical veterinary practice, I am also a well-established veterinary educator and clinical mentor.
High Standards of Ethics
I am a Registered Member of UKCP and abide by the Ethical Frameworks set out by UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) [www.psychotherapy.org.uk] and Association for Coaching (AC) [www.associationforcoaching.com].
Rigorous Training
I have undertaken high level training including:
- Diploma in Humanistic and Integrative Counselling Awarded with Distinction after four years of rigorous experiential training, the course is dual British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) accredited. I am a Registered Member of UKCP, which is a Professional Standards Authority (PSA) regulated membership body, and indicates a high standard of training and post-qualifying experience and study. For more information about the UKCP, please visit www.psychotherapy.org.uk.
- Level 5 Certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring. This one-year experiential training was delivered and supported by the British School of Coaching, a leading UK training institute delivering ILM accredited courses.
- PGCert (Veterinary Education) awarded with merit by RVC.
- Foundation Certificate in Counselling Skills. I completed a Foundation level certificate in Counselling Skills in 2014.
How it works
Psychotherapeutic Counselling
Psychotherapeutic counselling ("therapy") is a way of getting to know yourself at a deeper level and can support you in living life more fully. Many people come to therapy not for a specific reason or difficulty, but to get to know themselves better and become more self-aware.
Therapy also offers a space where you can get support and work through current or past difficulties and traumas. These might include a bereavement, relationship breakdown, childhood abuse or neglect, other traumatic events, coping with a chronic illness, recovering from injury or work stress. Psychotherapeutic counselling can enable you to find peace with what has happened to you and face the future with confidence.
I encourage you to explore your thoughts and feelings about your problems, challenges and future goals at your own pace.
Therapy generally requires a long-term, weekly commitment.
Person-centred Exploration
I am trained in psychodynamic therapy. This means that together we can explore your life and behaviour patterns and how these may have stemmed from past experiences - particularly from your developmental/childhood relationships.
This can be especially helpful when exploring relational dynamics in the veterinary workplace - i.e., how you might react and respond to others around you at work. Understanding of your relational patterns in the safety of a healthy, boundaried, confidential relationship can help you to discover new ways to relate in the outside world. Here, you will be able to tell your story, and feel heard and understood.
However, as I am a person-centred, integrative practitioner, I incorporate different approaches to suit your needs and preferences, and it is not always necessary to delve deeply into the past. I am trauma-trained and use a gentle, somatic-based modality for working with trauma.
Coaching
Coaching is action-oriented and helps you to set and achieve goals for the future. These might be career direction decisions, leadership challenges or personal difficulties. Coaching works with thoughts and behaviours (rather than feelings and emotions).
Coaching is usually carried out within a 'time-limited', short-term contract (e.g., 8 sessions) and sessions are usually fortnightly or monthly, but can be on an 'ad hoc' basis.
Skilled Integration: Therapeutic Coaching
As a dual-qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor and coach, I have the skill to work in both a future, goal-focused way and a present, feelings-focused way, depending on your situation.
Therapeutic coaching combines counselling techniques to explore past difficulties, repeating patterns and limiting beliefs that may be holding you back from reaching your full personal and professional potential.
Therapeutic coaching usually requires a longer-term, weekly or fortnightly commitment, however it can be carried out in a time-limited or 'ad hoc' session framework.
I offer an initial online session (at a reduced fee of £40) to enable exploration of your current situation and to discuss how Vetamorphosis can support you.
Confidential Support
I offer a supportive, non-judgmental environment where the focus is purely on you and your situation.
I encourage you to explore your thoughts and feelings about your problems, challenges and future goals at your own pace.
I take confidentiality very seriously and believe that therapeutic work cannot take place unless this is upheld at every level. Confidentiality is essential to building trusting relationships, and I respect your right to privacy. This means that I will not share information from your sessions or any other information I hold about you with any other person, organisation or agency.
All enquiries are kept confidential and if there is a boundary issue (for example, we know each other in another setting) I can support you in finding a suitable alternative therapist. All therapists associated with Vetamorphosis have been through a 'vetting' procedure, are suitably qualified and are registered with a Professional Standards Authority (PSA: https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/check-practitioners/practitioner/counselor) regulated membership organisation (such as BACP or UKCP).
Regular, Affordable, Accessible Sessions
Standard psychotherapeutic counselling/therapeutic coaching sessions are 50 minutes long and usually at the same time each week via video conferencing or phone. I offer both long-term (open-ended) and short-term (time-limited) support, depending on your need and circumstances. I try to accommodate rota patterns and shift changes, but weekly sessions at a regular time is recommended.
I aim to keep sessions affordable, and offer a sliding scale of £55-£70 per session (this is self-assessed, i.e. if you are on a higher wage, choosing to pay the higher fee enables more low cost spaces to be available). A few low cost spaces (£40) are limited to those on a low income - please ask at initial enquiry about current availability for these.
Coaching sessions are 60 minutes long and cost £85. I can offer extended (90 min) coaching/therapeutic sessions (£120), which can be particularly useful if you are working towards a specific goal.
As sessions can be so helpful in supporting you to thrive in your work, many practices are willing to for these to be paid out of a professional development budget.
What next?
I offer an initial online session at a reduced fee of £40 to enable exploration of your current situation and to discuss how Vetamorphosis can support you. Please fill in the contact form or email me philippa@vetamorphosis.co.uk to arrange an initial session.
Contact Me
To arrange an initial session or for further information please fill in the contact form or email direct
philippa@vetamorphosis.co.uk
Contact Us
! If you are in crisis or need immediate mental health support !
Contact NHS mental health services (111 or 999, visit A&E or call your GP)
phone Samaritans (116 123)
or contact Vetlife (0303 040 2551 www.vetlife.org.uk)
They are there 24 hours a day, 365 days a year