About Our Team
We Believe
Healers must prioritize self-care to provide the healing their patients demand. It’s not just clinical expertise, it’s about building and maintaining relationships with the people seeking help while sustaining a sense of personal and professional satisfaction and purpose. We can have a work/life balance, enjoy our chosen profession and make our work places a place we love to be. We are veterinary professionals committed to bringing wellbeing to our colleagues and the culture of veterinary medicine.
Dr. Galina Bershteyn
DVM, CVA, CVFT, AVMA Certificate of Workplace Wellbeing, AVMA Veterinary Wellbeing Educator
Dr. Galina Bershteyn received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2009 from the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, Canada after an 11 year career as a Registered Veterinary Technician. She continued on to Chi Institute of TCVM in Florida to become a Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist and Certified Veterinary Food Therapist in 2012.
Galina obtained 20 plus years of experience as a veterinary technician and then a locum veterinarian at companion animal, equine, emergency and exotic practices in Canada the US and the UK. She then opened her holistic practice in London, Ontario focusing on acupuncture, food therapy, aromatherapy as well as integrative medicine. Along with years of clinical experience in different roles and branches of veterinary practice, she has a unique practical approach to medicine and focuses on holistic principles in practice.
She focuses her extensive experience in practice team interactions combined with the AVMA’s Train -the-Trainer, Veterinary Wellbeing Educator and Certificate of Wellbeing in the Workplace programs, to assist veterinary professionals to establish better team relationships and wellbeing in their practices.
Galina is an avid scuba diver and PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor working with Iguana Divers in Santa Teresa and assisting with ocean conservation and monitoring projects including Manta Ray tagging and working with CREMA a local marine non profit, singer/songwriter, artist, and spiritual world traveler.
Our Partners
Wild Sun Rescue Center
Wild Sun Rescue Center is a non-profit organization located in Cabuya, Costa Rica. We are dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of our local wildlife, and are continuously striving to find solutions to the threats they face.Every day we treat sick, injured and orphaned animals that are affected by various threats including electrocution, dog and cat attacks, and illegal pet trade. Our primary goal is to release each animal back to the wild.
In addition to animal care, we are actively promoting conservation and offer internships and veterinary externships to increase community engagement and global awareness of conservation in Costa Rica. Wildsun provides the accommodation and activities for the retreats and proceeds help keep the doors open and the animals cared for while funding important conservation efforts like the Scarlet Macaw Breeding Program.
Learn more about Wild Sun Rescue Center
Learn more about Dr. Sonja Olson
Dr. Sonja Olson
Dr. Jamie Stahl
Dr. Jamie Stahl graduated with her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 2012 and from the University of Florida’s Mental Health Counselor Education program in 2019. Dr. Stahl now works as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine counseling veterinary students and as a therapist in private practice.
As a therapist, teacher, mentor, and former veterinarian she support and encourages you in embodying and expressing your inner truths, desires and living whole-heartedly. She practice the healing ways of the ancient somatic (body) traditions with a body-centered psychotherapy approach to reveal the wisdom of the heart and to return to the endless source of love within. This embodiment of love and awareness offers a way to alleviate suffering, deepen relationships, and create a meaningful life that we most long and yearn for.
The decision to transition from practicing veterinary medicine to mental health counseling stemmed from my own struggles as both a human and veterinarian. This led me to study, discover and learn life affirming therapeutic practices. As such, I offer an approach to counseling and psychotherapy to include embodied self - awareness, educational resourcing, and body-centered psychotherapy.
We work together to uncover resiliency to life’s challenges, stress and trauma.
Learn more about Dr. Jamie Stahl
Dr. Sonja Olson grew up with her human and animal family members mostly in Maryland, USA. She graduated from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine with a focus on exotic animal and conservation medicine. Her professional path led to over 25 years of practicing clinical small animal and exotic emergency medicine in both private and corporate practice environments in Virginia and in Florida. The myriad of opportunities to teach, mentor, and lead during these years were deeply fulfilling and inspirational. Through these personal and professional experiences, there developed an increased awareness of the far-reaching need for veterinary well-being awareness and healthy coping strategies. This combination fostered Sonja’s passion to better understand and increasingly support, the holistic health of the veterinary caregivers.
Dr. Olson’s previous role as a Veterinary Wellness Educator for the BluePearl Health & Well- being Team, was working alongside licensed mental health professionals. The team had the opportunity to create initiatives and resources as well as facilitate discussions on well-beingconcepts that foster a more compassionate, healthy careg iving community and culture. Dr. Sonja seeks to support veterinary associates more globally through podcasts, writing, speaking virtually and in person to veterinary colleagues, and creatively collaborating with other like-minded souls.
Dr. Olson founded her wellness platform, Heartstorming Wellness, in 2022 to support these