Vetamorphosis™
Vetamorphosis is dedicated to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of the veterinary community.
Providing psychotherapeutic counselling (therapy), therapeutic coaching and psychoeducational support for veterinary leaders,
Vetamorphosis exists to empower change.
Perhaps you are a…
Practice manager trying to support your overwhelmed team while barely keeping your head above water
Clinical Director wondering how best to support your team's wellbeing
Mid-career vet or nurse feeling exhausted and stressed at work considering leaving the profession
Head vet wondering how to help your recent graduates become more effective team members
Head nurse struggling after a relationship breakdown
Recent graduate finding practice life lonely and stressful
...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
- you can learn about emotions and relational patterns from psychoeducation
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)
- move from surviving to thriving
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 extensive clinical experience, I understand the unique challenges of our profession from the inside out.
My personal journey through burnout during my residency training transformed my career path and now drives the work I do today. Following what initially felt like a devastating experience of burnout, I underwent significant personal change, supported by both coaches and counsellors. On re-entering the profession, I found my home back in practice as a vet, leader, clinical mentor and educator, where I began truly thriving.
When two severe sports injuries took me out of clinical practice permanently, I saw this as an opportunity to channel my passion for veterinary wellbeing in a new direction. As a volunteer listener on Vetlife Helpline, I had heard many varied struggles of fellow veterinary community members, and I was determined to use my experiences to support others in the veterinary profession. I founded Vetamorphosis in 2017, initially focusing on mentoring and clinical teaching, before expanding into coaching and leadership development.
This diverse experience led me to pursue long and in-depth psychotherapeutic counselling training. Since beginning work as a counsellor from 2020, I've specialised in working therapeutically with veterinary professionals, building on my foundation of supporting vets through mentoring, coaching, and leadership development.
My Expanding Expertise:
- UKCP-registered psychotherapeutic counsellor with extensive experience working with complex client presentations
- Supporting veterinary professionals through mentoring, coaching, and therapeutic work since founding Vetamorphosis
- Leadership coaching and mental health workshops including delivery to veterinary teams
- Senior veterinary role experience supporting multidisciplinary teams
- Currently pursuing advanced qualifications in occupational psychology to deepen expertise in veterinary workplace mental health
I'm developing specialised knowledge in veterinary workplace psychology - an emerging field addressing the unique challenges that the UK veterinary community faces. My work increasingly focuses on the organisational and systemic factors that impact veterinary professional wellbeing, not just individual support.
My vision is to help create a supportive veterinary community culture where every individual can maximise their potential and thrive in both their personal lives and career - and where veterinary workplaces themselves become environments that actively support wellbeing.
Experienced, Dual-Qualified Counsellor and Coach
I am an experienced and highly qualified professional psychotherapeutic 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 UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) [www.psychotherapy.org.uk] and Association for Coaching (AC) [www.associationforcoaching.com] and abide by their Ethical and Professional Standards Frameworks.
Rigorous Training
I have undertaken high level training including:
- Advanced 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 ILM accredited training institute.
- PGCert Veterinary Education awarded with merit by RVC in 2015.
- Foundation Certificate in Counselling Skills (2015). This one-year experiential course equipped me with the basics of counselling practice.
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, or on an 'ad hoc' basis. Fees are £85 -100 per 60 minute coaching session (sliding scale based on affordability).
I can offer extended (90 min) coaching sessions (£140), which can be particularly useful if you are working towards a specific goal.
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 regular, medium to long-term, weekly commitment.
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 £60-£75 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). I have a few low cost places (£45) for those on a low income, please ask for availability of these at initial enquiry.
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 standard fee of £60) 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