Veterinary Teams Fill Information Gaps With Negative Stories, Coaches Say

Veterinary professionals routinely fill missing information with negative assumptions that raise stress and strain workplace relationships, according to Jennifer Edwards, DVM, PCC, CPC, ELI-MP, and Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, cohosts of the podcast The Resilient Vet: Mind and Body Strategies for Success. Their recent episode examined how clinicians can recognize these automatic thought patterns and replace them with more productive interpretations.

Edwards, a veterinarian and certified professional coach, opened with a direct observation about daily practice. "Every day we are surrounded by missing information," she said. "People say things without explaining what they meant, they do things without necessarily telling us why, and things just happen without much context at all."

The mind does not simply dislike that gap, she argued. "It doesn't just dislike it; it doesn't tolerate it. So it immediately fills it in. We create meaning, and it happens very fast and very automatically."

What triggers the stories in a clinic?

Edwards cited common examples from practice life:

• A practice manager texts, "Hey, can you just come see me before you leave today?" with no further context.
• An employee sends a Saturday afternoon message asking to talk Monday, deferring the explanation.
• A senior doctor walks past in the treatment area without saying good morning.
• A team member gives only a one-word answer.

"Within seconds, we have a full story: I'm in trouble. She's annoyed with me. She doesn't like me. He thinks it was a dumb question," Edwards said. The interpretation, she noted, is rarely one that makes the person feel good.

Most people repeat a small set of themes rather than generating random fears, the cohosts explained. Edwards described her own recurring pattern: "For me personally, it oftentimes is some version of 'they don't like me.' Typically I can look at most of my stories and it will pare down to some version of that."

She advised professionals to track their patterns so they can catch them early. Recognizing a familiar theme lets a clinician call it out directly: there I go again, creating that same old story.

Why do the stories feel true?

Edwards drew a sharp line between a personal truth and the actual truth. "When these stories arrive, in the moment that we make them up, they feel like they're the truth. We don't think, 'Oh, look at me, I'm guessing,'" she said. "However, it is not the truth. It is only my truth."

She added a blunt assessment of accuracy: "The vast majority of the time, these stories we make up really are not what's actually the truth in that situation."

Shaw, an occupational therapist, described a physical reaction to the examples, even in role-play. "There's like a little pit in my stomach. I have a literal visceral response to the 'Hey, can I talk to you for five minutes later?'"

He traced his own default interpretation to anticipating problems rather than personal rejection. "Your default is maybe a relationship concern, whereas for me, it just means there's a problem coming," Shaw said. "It's less personal about whether someone likes me and more about, oh boy, there's a problem, something's broken."

How can clinicians respond differently?

The cohosts framed the core question plainly. "Why do we default to the negative?" Shaw asked, noting that nobody anticipates good news from a request for an end-of-day conversation. "It's always like, I've got to carry this story in my head all afternoon. Why do we go negative? Why not just neutral?"

The episode's practical guidance centers on three habits for practice teams:

• Separate what actually happened from the meaning assigned to it.
• Consider alternative explanations before accepting the first interpretation.
• Ask questions that can strengthen communication and workplace relationships.

Responding with curiosity rather than judgment, the cohosts said, allows veterinary professionals to challenge their interpretations before those interpretations add to the stress of clinical work.

Edwards closed the discussion with a reminder that the goal is not forced optimism but accurate thinking: questioning an automatic story costs little, while carrying an invented one through a full shift can shape a whole day. For teams willing to name their recurring themes aloud, the practice-level payoff is fewer conflicts that begin as misunderstandings.