Wellbeing and vicarious trauma: personal reflections on support for students, practitioners and clinicians in family law

Thomson, Callum and Richardson, Kayliegh (2022) Wellbeing and vicarious trauma: personal reflections on support for students, practitioners and clinicians in family law. In: Wellbeing and Transitions in Law: Legal Education and the Legal Profession. Palgrave Macmillan, London. (In Press)

[img] Text
Vicarious_Trauma_and_Wellbeing.pdf - Accepted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only until 1 August 2025.

Download (280kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

According to the Junior Lawyers Division Wellbeing Survey, 58 of junior lawyers considered taking time off work for mental health reasons and 14 had suicidal thoughts. This chapter will build on existing research by considering the authors’ personal experiences of wellbeing and vicarious trauma during their time as a student and then in practice as family law solicitors, before considering how best to consider and manage trauma and wellbeing with students under their supervision as clinicians, to best prepare them for the transition into a healthy and long career in practice. With experience as clinical legal education students, solicitors in private practice and clinicians supervising students in a university environment, the authors are well placed to assess how effective the support is for those in similar working and studying environments. There are recommendations for additional support, as well as improving the effectiveness of current support. This is particularly important given the greater focus on mental and physical wellbeing in universities and legal practices, as well as the sensitive issues involved in family law.

Item Type: Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords: Clinical Legal Education, Vicarious trauma, Wellbeing, Legal Practice, Family Law, Autoethnography
Subjects: M100 Law by area
Department: Faculties > Business and Law > Northumbria Law School
Depositing User: John Coen
Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2022 09:44
Last Modified: 27 Jul 2023 14:15
URI: https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/49301

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics