Our Blog

Is Your Pet a Tick Magnet? Here’s What to Do if You Find One!

While cicada coverage has dominated the news this year, another insect has been causing a lot more issues for our dogs and cats. We’ve seen a surge in tick cases lately, with many pets needing tick removal. Don’t worry, this is not an emergency and most pet owners can handle tick removal at home –…

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Counselor’s Corner: Calmness Through Breath

By John Mysz, LCSW  VSW, CCFP 5 patients coding, 4 dogs barking, 3 impossible veins, 2 owners yelling, and one angry cat. The hardest shift in your career? Not likely. Stressful? Absolutely. You can feel the stress building, maybe get a headache or feel your body tense up. Maybe you notice you’re holding your breath randomly…

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Veterinary Specialty Center is a locally and privately-owned, multidisciplinary animal hospital that offers specialty services, emergency, critical care, and rehabilitation services. Management maintains a good relationship with employees, taking into consideration their concerns and suggestions to expand services by investing in state-of-the-art medical equipment to improve medical procedures and outcomes. Constant strides have also been…

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Counselor’s Corner: Traumatic Grief

By John Mysz, LCSW –  We’ve all heard about the stages of grief  – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But what happens when we never quite get to true acceptance? What if we don’t integrate the loss and continue moving forward? In my clinical experience, I’ve seen many people who experience a difficult or traumatic…

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Dealing with Community Trauma

By John Mysz, LCSW –  Every week or more in this country, we hear about a new, terribly traumatic mass shooting that shakes a community and onlookers to their core. Uvalde, Buffalo, and now Highland Park. It can feel as if these events are slowly, or very quickly, getting closer to home if they haven’t hit…

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Counselor’s Corner: Perfectionism

By John Mysz, LCSW –  “I’m a horrible veterinarian/tech” – “There’s no reason I should have missed that” “How could I have forgotten to do that?” Do any of those phrases sound familiar to you? They likely do considering you’re in veterinary medicine and numerous studies indicate that those in this field tend to score high…

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Counselor’s Corner: Comforting Grieving Owners

By John Mysz, LCSW –  While this may not be the primary job description for everyone in veterinary medicine, it is absolutely an essential part of the job that many of you will run into at some point. I understand it’s a very uncomfortable experience for many and wanted to share some suggestions/guidelines for you when…

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Counselor’s Corner: Self Care through Acts of Kindness

John Mysz, LCSW –  When we think of self-care, we often think of the nice extra things people on TV often tell us to do like take days off, take bubble baths, go on a nice vacation, or get a massage. While these are great, they are more than often not feasible to do with…

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Counselor’s Corner: Mindfulness

By John Mysz, LCSW –  Being overwhelmed at work as a healthcare professional almost seems like it should be in the job description at this point. The common sentiment of “overworked and underpaid” often rings true for many of us throughout our careers. Unfortunately, COVID 19 has only made this more salient. We find ourselves…

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Counselor’s Corner: You Are What You Eat

By John Mysz, LCSW –  Well not really. But the food you consume has an incredible relationship to your health. We all know the importance of a good diet for physical health. All of our doctors have talked to us about food choices and blood pressure, cholesterol, body fat percentage, and even life expectancy. What…

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