Thirty Years as a Veterinarian Seen Through a Retrospective Lens

article

Michele Gaspar

Abstract

Veterinary medicine is commonly viewed as an animal-centered profession. However, for those who work in it, veterinary medicine is as much, if not more, about the people who accompany their animals through the doors of the consultation rooms. Within a day, veterinarians often oscillate between a variety of emotions that are part of the human existence. These encounters with our own species can prove to be the most challenging part of the work.

Keywords:

animal-human companionship, catastrophic thinking, emotional labor, grief, immunocompromised clients, interpersonal relationships, psychobiography, psychohistory, resilience, veterinary medicine

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About the author

Michele Gaspar

Michele Gaspar, DVM, MA, LCPC, is a veterinarian and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in Chicago. She is a 1994 graduate of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received her MA in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University Chicago in 2012. Dr. Gaspar is an advanced psychoanalytic candidate at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. She can be reached at .

How to cite this article

Gaspar, M. (2025). Thirty years as a veterinarian seen through a retrospective lens. Clio’s Psyche, 32(3), 276-282.

https://doi.org/10.70763/e1dc4bf1f94e87fdfeb2d91ae3dc10ef