Extremely human animal care .
Supporting the people behind animal welfare. Because animals only thrive when you do.
Saving animals wasn’t supposed to be this hard. The lack of resources, the emotional whiplash, the people who don’t understand. The weight of it all can make you weary, even while doing what you love. And the moral injury, compassion fatigue, and cumulative grief of animal care work deserve more than "self-care" platitudes. You deserve expert support from someone who understands.
I do, because I live it too.
When the work you love, breaks your heart .
I know about the resource and convenience euthanasia. Public death threats. Impossible triage decisions. Watching price-shopping clients choose cost over care. The 2am calls about animals you couldn't save.
Animal care work wasn't supposed to feel like this. But here you are: exhausted, ethically wounded, grieving losses others don't understand, and wondering how much longer you can keep going.
Traditional "wellness" approaches fall short because they treat individual symptoms of systemic problems. I don't offer bubble baths and self-care lists. I offer trauma therapy, moral injury frameworks, and force-free organizational consulting that addresses root causes, not just symptoms.
How I Support Animal Care Professionals & Organizations
From individual support to organizational transformation: expertise that meets you where you are
Conference Presentations & Workshops
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Evidence-based presentations on moral injury, force-free leadership, and compassion fatigue for veterinary conferences, shelter leadership, and animal welfare events. I don't deliver motivational platitudes; I provide frameworks that transform how organizations understand and support their teams.
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Conference keynotes
Leadership retreat facilitation
Staff training workshops
Virtual & in-person options
Organizational Training & Culture Transformation
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Help your organization build force-free leadership cultures where compassion doesn't collapse. Services include staff training, moral injury risk assessment, policy consultation, and implementation support for veterinary clinics, shelters, and animal welfare organizations committed to systemic change.
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Force-free leadership training
Moral injury prevention protocols
Staff retention strategies
Culture assessment & planning
Wellness Retreats
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Immersive multi-day experiences designed for teams or communities of animal care workers. Combine trauma processing, moral injury education, somatic healing practices, and peer connection in settings that honor the depth of this work. Open registration Fortifyu-hosted retreats are available every other year or private custom-designed retreats for your organization are available upon request.
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Team retreats (5-50 participants)
Community gatherings
Custom retreat design
Trauma-informed facilitation
You chose animal care because you wanted to make a difference. But the cumulative weight of loss, ethical conflicts, public criticism, and resource limitations wasn't part of the job description.
Whether you're carrying compassion fatigue from bearing witness to suffering, complicated grief from losses that never stop, moral injury from choices that violate your values, or trauma your nervous system won't release, healing is possible and there are resources available to help.
I'm Dr. Jamie McNally: trauma specialist, moral injury researcher, Licensed Professional Counselor, and active volunteer at Michigan's highest-intake shelter. I've spent 13 years treating trauma and increasingly specializing in the unique wounds of animal care work, not from an office, but from the shelter floor.
I’ve lived the same impossible realities you face. I've felt the public's rage. I've carried animals to their final moments and wondered if I'm strong enough to keep showing up. This isn't theoretical. It's personal.
That's why my work goes deeper than "self-care." I address the systemic causes—punitive leadership, moral injury, organizational betrayal…and all the issues that drive good people out of this field. And I provide evidence-based frameworks for healing the wounds that conventional therapy overlooks.
I’m Not Just Researching This. I’m Living It.
This Work Is For You If:
You work or volunteer in:
Veterinary medicine (DVMs, techs, specialists)
Animal sheltering & rescue
Animal control and enforcement
Wildlife rehabilitation
Zoos, aquariums, and marine mammal care
Laboratory animal care
Animal training & behavior
Pet care services (boarding, walking, sitting)
Any role where the human-animal bond is central to your work
You’re navigating:
Compassion fatigue that leaves you exhausted
Moral distress from value-violating decisions
Complicated grief from cumulative losses
PTSD or secondary trauma
Euthanasia-related guilt and ethical conflict
Public hostility, threats, and accusations
Burnout that makes you question staying in the field
The weight of choices made under impossible constraints
Transform your work.
This is extremely human animal care.
Partnerships
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Collaborations
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Articles
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Partnerships • Collaborations • Articles •
For Every Type of Animal-Related Trauma & Loss
Fortifyu offers specialized support for animal care professionals navigating the hardships that result from working in spaces where the human-animal bond is ruptured, broken, or lost.
Follow The Work
Real talk about moral injury, force-free leadership, and the realities of animal care work
