ABOUT US
Learn more about the team at Vet Empowered
ABOUT US
Vet Empowered was founded in 2020, as a collaboration between Katie Ford and Claire Grigson - both experienced vets and coaches. They have run multiple, highly successful waves of group coaching, and are excited to continue to impact the veterinary profession in a positive way.
"We truly believe that everyone should have the chance to reconnect with themselves and understand what is truly important to them as individuals, treating themselves with compassion as they raise their self-awareness. The gift of coaching and holding space to consider this can be pivotal both inside and outside of work. We work with people beyond their job titles, and feel privileged that our veterinary experience adds in a relatable, mentorship aspect to our work too. Although we have worked with a wide range of professionals, we find that the majority of our clients are early career professionals; a fantastic time to go through this experience."
Katie Ford & Claire Grigson
Vet Empowered Founders
Both founders of Vet Empowered have experienced the lifechanging effects of coaching, and still continue to work with their own coaches and mentors.
Dr. Katie Ford
BVSc CertAVP(SAM) PGCert ProDip(CBT) MRCVS MCMA
Co-Founder of Vet Empowered
Vet, Certified Coach, Speaker, Mentor & Creator.
BVNA Keynote Speaker 2020
VSGD Live 2.0 Opening Keynote 2022
Currently studying for a Masters Degree
in Emotional Wellbeing Therapy
MCMA
"My name is Katie, I live in beautiful Saddleworth just outside Manchester. I'm a happy space-nerd, obsessed with Gary Vaynerchuk and I love racoons. Getting outside walking makes my heart glow, as does spending time with my partner and our two ridiculously fluffy cats. I love the gym, learning mountain biking, fitness and have done the odd mud run. I'm obsessed with gratitude, its anecdotal and more scientifically proven effects. I come up with new and ambitious plans regularly, and I am fascinated with human potential.
I'm passionate about positive mindset techniques and helping others with them too; I trained as a coach, broadband consciousness trainer & cognitive behaviour therapy. I've also been mentored and still am, by one of Bob Proctor's top mindset coaches in the world, who I'm lucky to call a good friend. I'm also a vet, who works in small animal practice and has an advanced certificate in internal medicine, I've been lucky to be doing this for nine years now.
Five years ago, this would have been a very different introduction. I would have started with "my name is Katie, and I'm a vet." All of my worth was on my job title; this was a double-edged sword. The profession is amazing, but I left all my hobbies behind. I became overworked (on my own terms), feeling like a fraud for any achievement and constantly chasing happiness. I put myself under more stress than clients, colleagues or patients ever did; I chased perfection constantly, staying longer and longer to disaster prevent. My brain looked for things that went wrong, and tortured me, however minuscule they appeared externally. It was mentally and physically unsustainable. I had achievements galore, everything external that I could want... but internally, I was in a civil war. I felt like one person went and achieved all this stuff externally, and then internally, I felt like a worthless fraud.
The good news was that through lots of methods, help from many sources, harnessing my thoughts, and recognising my personal value...my life is totally transformed. I've since started multiple businesses of my own, grown a social media following of over 12,000 (you'll find me as @katiefordvet). You'll also find me speaking about imposter syndrome on many stages from WellVet to the Global Vet Career Summit, a myriad of podcasts, and recently keynote speaker at BVNA. In 2020, I published a book called "To an amazing vet", with versions for vet nurses and receptionists available too.
I feel lucky every day to know the content that I post about, hence I constantly try to share what I have learned, and why I trained in these methods myself. I love to help people to reconnect with themselves, the real them, and that's not always who we think that we are. I've coaches everyone from student vets and nurses, right up to CEOs and diploma holders.
If you're reading this, you're valuable, and unique and we'd love to help you see that too.
I am so excited to welcome our delegates onto Vet Empowered with Claire, and show them what a difference it can make to all aspects of their lives."
Claire Grigson
BVM&S MRCVS ACCP (Advanced Cert in Coaching Practice)
Co-Founder of Vet Empowered
Vet, self-love and relationship coach, meditation teacher & content creator
"My name’s Claire, and I live in Edinburgh with my wee dog Cabbage, who is crazy and cute in equal measures! I love connecting with new people, dancing in my kitchen to old school Ibiza tunes, yoga, meditation, reading and having long hot baths whenever I can. I enjoy being out in nature with Cabbage, listening to podcasts, coffee, cake and catch ups with my friends, and appreciating the little things in life.
I have been qualified as a small animal vet for almost 14 years, and I still thoroughly enjoy working with my clients and patients. However, I fully understand the potential for work to become an area of stress, and I believe that mindset is a powerful tool for maximising
enjoyment and fulfillment in this area of your life. You deserve to have a healthy work-life balance, and part of this is learning to value yourself and your free time as much as your job role. There are many techniques that I use daily to help me to stay grounded, present and focused, even on the busiest of shifts.
I trained to become a certified and accredited life coach after being part of a life coaching group programme, and the experience completely helped to transform my mindset and the relationship that I had with myself. Prior to this I had gone through divorce, and I was completely disconnected from who I was and what I wanted from life. I suppressed my emotions, filled my life with distractions and hoped that it would all just ‘get better by itself’. From the outside I was confident, capable, high achiever, but on the inside my self esteem was at rock bottom, as I placed all my self worth on other peoples validation and approval. Work became a coping strategy as it allowed me to ‘put on a mask’ and not deal with what was going on behind closed doors, but without doing the inner work I became stuck in a loop of unhelpful behaviours that just further chipped away at my self esteem. After hitting my
lowest point after losing two dear friends, I realised that something needed to change, and I sought support from a counsellor as well as investing in my personal development to help me move forwards in a more positive way.
I have learned a lot through my personal challenges, and I am passionate about supporting others to make positive sustainable change in their life, by improving the relationship they have with themselves, and to learn to listen and trust their authentic self over their inner
critic. I fully believe in the power of coaching, having experienced it myself and also experienced the transformations in those that I work with. I am so excited to be delivering this incredible programme with Katie, and to be part of our delegates transformational
journey."
Beth Handley
BVetMed MRCVS ACCP (Advanced Cert in Coaching Practice)
Vet Empowered Support Coach
"Hello, I’m Beth. I live in Suffolk with my husband and my animals Nala and Bonnie. Bonnie is my shadow and the cuddliest dog I have ever met, if I could take her everywhere I went I would. I love adventure and having fun (I love messing about and laughing), preferably with my favourite people! I enjoy spending time with friends and family. I absolutely love dancing, and having mini adventures with my husband and friends, going kayaking, walking and taking photos/making scrapbooks.
I am currently training to be a coach and have recently joined team vet empowered, and I am so excited to be a part of it. I love meditating and am also learning how to run these myself. I am a vet, I qualified almost 6 years ago (which seems crazy). I have worked in some wonderful practices. I really enjoy supporting clients and the compassion needed in the job. I love building rapport with clients!
I have always struggled with worrying, both inside and outside work. And about 2 years ago I decided that I wanted to make a change. Up until then I really had no work-life balance. I thought about work all the time at home and stayed very late at work. I made the decision to do what I could to improve my life satisfaction. All I really wanted was to be happy! So, I got a counsellor, I started doing breathing exercises, making time for me in the day and meditating. I also reduced my hours. And I started to feel a shift. And then, about 8 months ago, my lovely boss suggested vet empowered. She knew I still struggled (despite all my efforts) with confidence at work, and she thought it might be good.
When I looked on the website, I felt this course was made for me! I learnt about boundaries and self-compassion, the inner critic and so much more. I got to geek out in an area that I was so passionate about! It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! I had so many lightbulb moments. And I had this gut feeling, a belief in my heart, going through the course, that this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to help others. Specifically, I wanted to help people realise how important THEY are. So, it was a no brainer for me to join the incredible team!
I’ve since taken a break from my clinical job, and I’m now training to be a coach and loving every minute. It’s taken me out of my comfort zone, but I’m learning so much. And I can’t wait to help more people!"
To provide high quality, empowering personal development content and support to professionals in animal-related industries. We strive to remind every individual that we come in contact with of their inherent value, and leave them with an impression of increase. We create a community of supportive, likehearted professionals where they can connect and support each other.
We are proud to do things a bit differently here.
OUR CORE VALUES
Kindness | Fun | Authenticity Collaboration | Gratitude | Compassion
"Nothing will ever exceed the relationship that we have with ourselves"
- Liz Ivory