Lawyer Wellness Must Include Lawyer Healing
The downfall of a corporation is a potent example of what happens when unhealed individuals hold leadership positions. (Cheryl Richardson)
The other day I was listening to a podcast where the featured guest, the CEO of a tech company providing personal and professional development coaches to some of the world’s top law firms made a comment about the roll-out of a new time management technique for young lawyers stating, “It’s not about the technique, it’s about the people operating the technique.” It got me thinking of a key nuance that I believe has been overlooked in the lawyer wellness conversation replete with programs, tools and a greater awareness than ever about the importance of lawyer wellness accompanied by a deepening of crisis in the form of widespread burnout, depression, chronic stress and worse. Are such innovations largely being ignored and dismissed? Or we approaching things from the wrong vantage point? What causes us as lawyers to continuously engage in self-sabotaging behaviors, repeating less than helpful patterning or pursuing paths for years and years on end that are at cross purposes to our spirit- and are mere wellness CLEs (and their progeny) impactful enough to translate into shifts in individual lawyer behavior and law firm culture?
I ran across the opening quote in the waning days of the implosion of the Enron Corporation when the general thinking was that surely this was the most dysfunctional it could get as far as corporate malfeasance (oh well…). I was so moved by it that it played front and center of my doctoral studies where I explored the idea of corporations as conglomerates of energy; specifically with an eye at looking at how toxic leadership could be alleviated by having corporate leaders model a commitment to personal development work as a means of keeping their baser instincts in check and ultimately exhibit the leadership their colleagues deserve. Top-down leadership in this regard in legal organizations can be the engine in normalizing personal development work and conveying its value.
In the past decade of working in the lawyer wellness arena I’ve noticed a decided slant to address challenges from a reactive standpoint…by contrast, a widespread proactive push for lawyer wellness centering inner work- not so much. The intangible indicators of discomfort in a self-aware professional that morph into a sense of misalignment festering for years that in an ideal world would nudge us into a realization that something is awry and trigger some reflection about the direction our lawyer lives are going. However, in the absence of a three-alarm fire, so often this reflection does not happen. Then the only catalyst for change would be the proverbial crisis that finally captures our attention, and by then there’s quite the clean-up on aisle 7 to contend with.
We have access to information about how best to take care of ourselves. The question that remains is why we’re not doing so and whether we have the will to take a different approach. There is a gap here that requires going beyond business as usual.
As an Energy Healer & Strategist in addition to being a Lawyer, I leverage my sensitivity on behalf of women lawyers who wish to take the reins of their personal development in a manner that truly moves the needle. As more of us individually opt to prioritize our own healing, we can amplify shifts that make the profession an agent for the positive societal change that it has the capacity to be. If this is a direction that resonates in your own journey to lawyer wellness, send me a DM so we can talk about how I may support you on your path.
#innerlifeoflawyering #lawyerwellbeing #corporatesoul