Trauma-related work drives interest in lawyer well-being

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Lawyers: You could be nicer to yourselves.

That is the intriguing title of a recent CLE presentation by Miriam Itzkowitz, who is director of trauma-informed care for the Institute for Children, Families and Communities at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

A social worker who has worked in a legal setting for the past decade, Itzkowitz gave her perspective on the ways in which legal education and the legal profession “frame” work-related stress, burnout and mental health and substance use. Itzkowitz said the same skills that make lawyers good at their jobs are the same ones that can prevent them from employing strategies “that many other disciplines have embedded in their professional education.”

In her role, Itzkowitz develops and implements trauma-informed education and programming in the child welfare system. She also serves as the social work supervisor in the Child Protection Clinic, and is  an adjunct faculty member at the University of St. Thomas School of Social Work.

Reluctance to think about or prioritize mental health and emotional wellness “has been a culture of among lawyers,” Itzkowitz said.  “Lawyers are taught to have really focused attention that leads to some sort of action or outcome, and that is great. But for people to engage in mindfulness, the mindset is non-judgmental, and opposite of that.”

She said for about a decade, there has been a slow evolution with lawyers showing “vocal interest asking for different ways of doing things. And there is a change in CLE requirements requiring two hours of mental health CLEs. That, to me, is a sign that this starting to be taken more seriously, with putting things into action.”

Itzkowitz’s interest in lawyers’ mental well-being originated in her trauma-related work. Itzkowitz said her work has given her a firsthand view of  “ the limiting factors that can keep lawyers from achieving wellness.”

She found that “Lawyers are hungry for more information on how to work with people who have experienced trauma. They don’t get any specific training in that. That opens the door to ‘maybe I could also do this for myself.’  Lawyers can’t do their best work in helping clients who have experienced trauma “without touching on what have been  their own experiences.”

Emotional/mental health is related to work-life balance, which is still an issue for many lawyers, she pointed out. “Like anything else, change starts by people talking about it but maybe not living it (yet). I’m not sure how much things are changing in practice. The lawyers I talk to want it to be different and they don’t feel as though they have  permission to do that yet. I hope the conversation leads to more substantive change in practice.”

“Resources are only as good as when they are being taken advantage of, so we’re  making sure people are aware of what resources there are and how to use them,” said Itzkowitz, who will be doing a CLE presentation in March about how to choose a therapist. (The presentation will be available at the Mitchell-Hamline website.)

Also, she believes it’s helpful for people who are doing mental health work with lawyers to be aware of some of specific challenges lawyers face. “There still needs to be more awareness among mental health professionals about what it is.”

Itzkowitz is a proponent of reflective practice — the idea that “our actions should be informed by a knowledge base that we engage with actively, as opposed to forms of practice that (are based on) unthinking habits or routines. Allowing lawyers to start thinking of well-being as an integral part of being lawyers makes them better lawyers.”

Mitchell Hamline’s wellness committee has developed a number of initiatives for students, faculty and staff including a “resilient practice” class for clinic students. “A number of faculty members, the  dean of students and student body are really saying, ‘We need this and you need to do this.’”

“Sometimes lawyers hear this as ‘This is just another thing I have to do well.’ That feels daunting. But there are road maps for how this can be done; you’re not going to  need to turn your life upside down, there are small steps you can take,” Itzkowitz said.

Another advocate for mental health in the legal profession, Joan Bibelhausen of St. Paul-based Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, said she agrees with Itzkowitz that those efforts are having an impact and need to continue. “The conversation needs to continue, with more people working to figure out solutions,” said Bibelhausen, who is LCL’s executive director.

“Self-care is one piece of a very large puzzle,” Bibelhausen said. “More lawyers and law students are doing that now, which is a really good thing.

“We all can use some help with this, it’s something everybody can use. Solutions are not always a matter of win-or-lose.”

Bibelhausen cited addiction-treatment courts as an excellent example of what can be done “to protect society and also give people a chance to improve their lives and become meaningful contributors.”

Also:

Fighting mental health stigma: A lawyer shares her story