Animal Medical Center of Seattle Employee Wellness Program

Our goal is to provide AMCS employees with the tools to care for themselves so their bodies and minds are prepared for and able to deal with the issues we are all facing in the veterinary profession. This program is voluntary but we encourage you all to take part.

AMCS Coaching:

All sessions are 45 minutes long via zoom. They are completely confidential. Topics addressed can be about both work and personal.

How Life Coaching can help:

• Build resilience, healthy habits, and stronger boundaries (boundaries is a big one, learning where your own limits are, how to say no without feeling badly)

• Identify strategies to help manage stress and feelings of burnout
(Being aware when you are feeling burned out, how to take small steps towards self care. In one of our workshops, we talk about micro-habits, small steps that you can’t fail)

• Develop greater self awareness & emotional intelligence

• Diminish negative self-talk, limiting beliefs, and self defeating behaviors (where might you have perfectionist tendencies, or are hard on yourself, or feeling guilty)

• Improve relationships with yourself and others (Compassion towards yourself as you are with others)

• Strengthen confidence and overall well-being

• Grow personally which can positively impact all areas of your life

Coaching link for AMCS employee’s February 2024

https://calendly.com/clairekchew/feb-2024-amcs-sessions

Wellness Workshop #1
Building Trust and Connections

Wednesday, March 10th at 6:00pm

Session 1: Building A Strong Team With Greater Trust and Connection
Trust is at the core of every relationship, and every successful team, especially critical in the workplace where team members are spending 10+ hours together. In this workshop, we will teach you communication strategies to cultivate a greater sense of trust and connection with your team you can use at any level.

In this workshop, we will look at:

• How to model positive team behavior and walk your talk
• The impact of the social brain
• How the survey results map to trust and connection
• Ways to provide constructive feedback while maintaining sense of support & connection
• How to trust and be trusted

You will walk away with a plan you can implement for yourself or as a team. This workshop will be 60 minutes in length with practical guidance and interactive exercises. Worksheets and pdf of presentation will be made available post workshop to attendees.

Wellness Program Leadership Team

Claire Chew, M.A.


Claire Chew knows your love. She knows your loss. What she also knows thanks to her experience and training is how to get through the pain to a place where humans can remember their animal companion with affection and grace.

Claire, a veterinary medical consultant/life transition coach, helps people who feel stuck after a significant life transition heal from trauma to become their best selves. Her pet loss work has enabled hundreds of pet lovers worldwide to accept their grief and grow from it.

From workshops, coaching sessions to self-guided pet loss programs, she helps pet owners unpack their upset and understand why the loss of an animal’s unconditional love can trigger feelings in other, unexpected areas of their lives.

As the in-house life balance coach for Access Specialty Animal Hospitals, she coaches staff members on healthy coping mechanisms to maintain health and life balance.

Claire earned a Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology, certification in Grief Recovery, Grief Bereavement Facilitation, and Animal Reiki, certified Pet Loss Counselor, is a member of the Association of Pet Loss and Bereavement, International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care. Claire’s work has been featured in InStyle, Marie Claire, Martha Stewart Living, and more.

Margalit Ward, CEC


Margalit Ward is a Certified Executive Coach, Training Facilitator and Curriculum Designer for Thrive Global and The EduCare Foundation, and the Co-Founder of Professional Women’s Network LA.

She completed her coaching certification from ICF Certified Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching and is a graduate of the Counseling Psychology Masters Program, and completed her Consciousness, Health & Healing
Certification from the University of Santa Monica.

With over 15 years of experience, she has served hundreds of clients in many industries, including tech, health care, retail, manufacturing, financial, non-profits, and education. She brings a rich toolbox to support individuals and organizations with stress management, clarifying an ideal vision for success, and maintaining healthy habits for a fulfilling and balanced work/life. Margalit has built a reputation for helping clients in achieving greater performance, well-being, confidence, resilience, and communication in both their professional and personal lives.

Margalit enjoys hiking, gardening, and exploring her native city of Los Angeles where she lives with her husband, son, and dog Sadie. She is also a contributor to the Huffington Post and Thrive Global.

BurnAlong – Complementary Wellness Benefit

About Our BurnAlong Benefit:

As an AMCS employee, you have a subscription to BurnAlong for yourself as well as 4 friends or family members! You have access to on-demand and live video classes from 100’s of instructors spanning 45+ health and wellness categories from yoga to stress reduction to diabetes prevention to financial wellbeing. They even have a category for working out with your dog!!! You can take workout classes by yourself or use the “group class” feature to take a class with up to 3 other people whom you can see and hear on the screen for motivation. Also, BurnAlong is accessible on phones, tablets, computers, and smart TVs.