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Managing one’s wellbeing when undertaking trauma-related cases
Advising clients who have experienced trauma can be an emotional challenge for legal professionals. Here, an award-winning lawyer outlines the most effective ways that lawyers can assist their wellbeing while engaging with such sensitive cases.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Karena Nicholls, a partner and head of injury, compensation and employment law at Coutts Lawyers & Conveyancers, provided insights into how legal professionals can care for themselves while dealing with emotionally charged cases and clients who have experienced trauma. She emphasised the importance of implementing such strategies to safeguard not only their client’s interests but also their own mental and emotional health.
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When reflecting on her early days as a lawyer, Nicholls detailed how her approach to dealing with specific situations evolved with the benefit of her experience in handling trauma-related cases.
“There’s a lot of things I did as a younger lawyer that I probably would change in relation to, you know, understanding someone’s key respects of their claim and then making sure that it’s not just about the facts,” she said.
Nicholls revealed that a crucial method she has implemented to take care of herself when dealing with such heavy-hearted cases involves prioritising her personal wellbeing through regular physical activity.
“The way that I manage it personally is particularly, I keep myself fairly active in terms of I try to [exercise often]. When I can get to the gym and have a good mindset,” she said.
An additional aspect that Nicholls incorporates into practice is engaging in discussions with her colleagues, as this serves as an invaluable opportunity to collaboratively process complex cases and share insightful strategies for managing emotional stressors.
“I try to engage with other colleagues, whether it’s on the same side as mine or on the other side even because we’re all going through a very similar situation,” she said.
Nicholls also emphasised the critical importance of engaging in training programs specifically focused on trauma, as it enables lawyers to develop the requisite skills for effectively and sensitively handling clients who have experienced trauma.
“I’ve done training as well. I keep up that training in relation to trauma counselling, ability to be able to deal with clients who are suffering trauma,” she said.
She also elaborated that she considers this training highly important and, as a result, has made it mandatory for her team to participate in such programs to ensure they are well prepared to handle emotionally complex situations effectively and skillfully.
“I’ve actually rolled that out to my team, and that’s through a program called Go One, which then we roll out training that allows them to be able to access any training that they would like to access.
“But also sort of mandatory training that allows them to be able to deal with difficult clients or deal with situations that might be a little bit foreign to them that then gives them,” she said.
She further articulated the importance of participating in such training programs because “unless you have gone through trauma yourself, it’s very difficult to relate to certain situations, and what will happen is that the client might be talking and talking and talking, but you need to look for the flags”.
Nicholas also said: “Never treat a client the same as the client that you treated it before is my advice, because one thing might work for one person, but the communication is the key, and that may need to change depending upon the journey of the client or depending upon the client itself.”
