One-of-a-kind Partnership Makes Mental Health Resources Accessible to Veterinary Professionals

Since 2022, MVMA has offered a program that connects our members with a mental health professional who is deeply knowledgeable about the veterinary profession.

Athena Diesch-Chham is a clinical social worker and founder of Restorative Path Counseling and Wellbeing who works almost exclusively with veterinary professionals. I recently connected with her to learn more about who she is and how she is making a difference in the lives of MVMA members. The fascinating story of how she ended up in such a niche area—a therapist who specializes in working with veterinary professionals—gives insight into what an incredible resource Athena is to our community.

MVMA's Mental Health Benefit

But before we get into that story... did you know that any person who works in a hospital or clinic where at least one MVMA member is employed can access at least one free session through Restorative Path, and—after considering insurance coverage—up to five additional sessions, all covered by MVMA as a benefit of membership?

All it takes is reaching out to Athena, letting her know that you are (or a colleague in your clinic is) an MVMA member, and she’ll guide the process. Based in Northfield, Athena offers in-person therapy sessions as well as telehealth. She says a benefit of telehealth is that “people from all ends of the state can have access to a qualified, well-trained and knowledgeable therapist who doesn’t live and work in the same community as you.” Athena is also available to work with any member/member clinic on short notice for crisis debriefing and emotionally charged/sensitive situations.

When I asked Athena what makes her different in the eyes of a veterinary professional, she said: “You don’t have to explain work to me. You don’t have to defend or justify why something like taking a one-hour lunch break isn’t feasible. I know this profession. You can use your full veterinary words and I will understand what you are talking about.”

Athena works with veterinary professionals on a wide variety of things—burnout, compassion fatigue, physical health diagnoses (theirs or a family member’s), big life transitions, imposter syndrome, identity (such as within the context of retirement), neurodiversity, money issues, marriage and family dynamics, and more.

“Having information about yourself and why you act or interact the way you do is so helpful for people,” she says. It’s incredibly rewarding when her clients have “a-ha!” moments – when after learning to recognize a pattern, they finally try a solution and find that it works, breaking a pattern that was holding them back.

A Serendipitous Career Journey

Throughout her education and career, Athena Diesch-Chham says she has been nudged along by the cosmos—often in unexpected directions, at times towards things she didn’t think she wanted, and not always in a seemingly timely fashion.

Like when she started college planning to major in zoology with the goal of working with marine mammals. Her father, who just knew she should be a therapist long before she herself did, told her when he dropped her off at college: “Your major is wrong, but you need to figure that out.”

Two years later, after reflecting on the achievement gap between her coursework in zoology and psychology—her minor at the time—she swapped her major and minor and hasn’t looked back.

There are multiple educational paths to becoming a therapist after undergraduate, and when Athena returned to school for her Master’s, she settled on a two-year program in social work—for practical reasons. On the first day in her very first class, they read the Social Work Code of Ethics. Realizing how well it aligned with her core beliefs and values, a strong feeling came over her: she was meant to be a social worker. What she appreciates about social work, she says, is that it “uses a strengths-based, solution-focused approach to how we see challenges and clients with challenges.”

An initially unwelcome nudge from the universe came at the start of her second year. In the aftermath of a first-year internship that ruled out what she’d thought she wanted to do, a faculty member encouraged her to apply for the internship at the U of M Veterinary Medical Center (VMC). After multiple interviews as part of the internship match program, Athena ranked the VMC last, doubtful that this was a direction she wanted to pursue. The VMC, however, ranked Athena first… and it was a match. 

Amazingly, less than two months into her internship at the VMC, Athena realized that she had found what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. “It made sense to me in a way that nothing ever had, it was so incredible.”

When asked what she attributed that to, she reflected on two themes. Having grown up as a farm kid in southern Minnesota surrounded by dogs, cats, chickens, horses, bunnies, and pigs, she has a deep understanding of the connection humans have with animals. Life has also dealt her a lot of loss within her extensive family, and she has “done grief” since she was quite young. As an intern at the VMC, she was able to put those two things together—the connection with animals and an understanding of the debilitating emotional burden of grief. Her personal experience allowed her to understand these things far beyond what her then-limited professional training and experience could have.

Her internship at the VMC was bittersweet. While she loved what she was doing, she knew the VMC wouldn’t employ more than the one social worker who was already there, and she knew of no other job like it. And so, after having found her calling, she left the VMC as an intern, graduated from the University of Minnesota with her Master of Social Work, and found a social worker position in a human hospital.

Fourteen months later, cue the cosmos again: the social worker at the VMC was leaving. Incredibly, the position was available—and Athena was invited to interview. Despite thinking it was a long shot, on October 1, 2012, Athena started in her role as clinical social worker at the UMN Veterinary Medical Center. For a total of 10 years, including her internship year, Athena thrived in her role working with veterinary faculty and staff, veterinary students, and external clients whose pets were seen at the VMC. She made connections and touched the lives of so many people in that setting.

When changes were announced to the social worker program and her role would no longer exist as it previously had, Athena found herself at a crossroads. She mentally prepared herself to take her career in a different direction and walk away from veterinary social work. And then she kept hearing from those she was working with: “If I don’t have you as a therapist, who am I going to see?” and “Nobody else gets us like you do.”

A New MVMA Member Benefit

In early 2021 while still at the VMC, she founded her own private therapy practice, Restorative Path Counseling and Wellbeing. While working to get her business up and running that fall, Athena happened to connect with MVMA board member Dr. Ann Brownlee and staff member Kelly Andrews at a Twins game outing hosted by MVMA’s MOVE. When asked what she thought veterinary professionals needed, Athena said: “they need access to knowledgeable mental health support.” Athena understood that most of her therapist colleagues have no idea what daily life as a veterinarian looks like – but she does, and that makes a huge difference in how accessible and effective therapy is. By the end of the evening, Kelly invited Athena to submit a proposal for a new MVMA member benefit that would address this need.

Athena says she decided to aim for the stars and see what would happen. At its February 2022 meeting, the MVMA board considered her proposal and—based on her ideas—developed and allocated funds for what is now our Mental Health Benefit. Athena credits the quick success of her private practice to this partnership, and she loves being able to continue working with veterinary professionals.

Since that time, 112 people have used the benefit, and MVMA has paid for 584 sessions. Many veterinary professionals who first accessed her counseling services thanks to the MVMA benefit continue seeing Athena for support.

Outside of the benefit, a number of clinics have brought Athena in to do education with their teams, and she’s helped veterinary teams across Minnesota understand each other better. Several clinics are so dedicated to improving the culture of their teams they bring her in quarterly.

These days, her private practice keeps her very busy, and she has recently brought on her colleague, Joanne, in order to meet the demand. Athena shared: “Joanne has been part of my veterinary social work journey from the beginning, as she and I went to grad school together. Additionally, one of Joanne’s best friends was in vet school at the U at the same time. Joanne has been a Clinical Social Worker as long as I have, and she has had an incredible career. I am so excited for her to join Restorative Path Counseling and Wellbeing!”

“Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you?” I asked as we began wrapping up.

She said: “I am not scary! Therapy doesn’t need to be scary, and you don’t need to know how to “do” therapy. I’m going to talk to you like a real person; we’re going to have a real conversation.” I could understand how she’s so good at putting people at ease listening to her describe a hypothetical scenario addressing a pattern of negative self-talk. “I call those negative thoughts the ‘jerks in the back corner,’” she said. “Let’s talk about them and question them.”

If MVMA’s partnership with Restorative Path Counseling and Wellbeing is something you could benefit from, you can learn more at mvma.memberclicks.net/mental-health-benefit.

Article by Jenn Stromberg, MVMA Marketing and Communications Manager