Mar 6, 2018
The legal industry is one of the most uniquely taxing and stressful professional environments there is. This has consequences, and one person all too familiar with this is social worker Robyn Bradey, who we were lucky enough to have on this episode of Beyond Billables. Robyn started off training lawyers who worked with clients suffering from mental health issues. But as awareness was raised about mental health within the profession, she quickly became a go-to source of information.
In our conversation, we talked about mental health issues in the legal profession from A to Z. We hit on how some of the structural and qualitative aspects of the law have such dire consequences. Robyn shared some stories from her career, talked about key issues that are changing or need to change and, perhaps most importantly, talked about what people who need help can do.
Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like:
- How to recognise the symptoms of anxiety and depression
- The coming generational change in terms of what’s accepted for workplace ‘norms’
- The power of individual stories, particularly tragic ones
- How to move from talk to action
- Why working in the law can be a perfect storm of negative factors for some people
- What lawyers can do if they’re struggling
- How to connect people with the support and resources they need
- The pervasiveness of vicarious trauma
- How to get people past the fear of asking for help
- Why developing a thicker skin is both good and bad advice
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