Law Firm Mentor, LLC’s Post

Today’s the day! Dr. Carla Cooke and I are thrilled to present at the IALMH program in beautiful Barcelona, Spain! 🌟 📍 Location: University of Barcelona Law College 🗓️ Date: Thursday, July 25 ⏰ Time: 8:00 AM 📚 Panel: Trauma and Its Consequences 🎤 Presentation Title: Trauma on Trial: A Demonstration of the Use of Trauma-Informed Psychological Principles in Contested Custody Litigation Understanding the role of trauma is vital for attorneys and mental health professionals. Our presentation will delve into how trauma impacts evaluations, treatment modalities, and courtroom proceedings, especially in contested custody cases. We’ll be sharing insights and strategies on effectively incorporating trauma symptomatology into legal and mental health practices. This is a must-attend session for anyone involved in custody litigation. We'll explore the dynamics of trauma, legal and mental health strategies, and essential trial skills when trauma is at issue. Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your expertise and advocacy skills. Stay tuned for more updates, and we hope to see you there! #IALMH2024 #TraumaInformed #LegalProfession #MentalHealth #CustodyLitigation #ProfessionalDevelopment #Barcelona #Expertise #AdvocacySkills

Domestic violence is an incredibly traumatic and common experience, but many struggle with how best to address it in clinical practice. Led by author, educator and master clinician, Dr. Michael Acton, this 34-hour deep-dive program provides a simple and powerful guide to supporting abusees appropriately. Find out more and enrol here:

For the Benefit of All the Beautiful Mental Health Law Nerds who care deeply about psychiatric expert evidence, I have updated my Blog entry about Nettleton & Hason to link to all four cases of relevance & the SCC's Case Information Sheet on Bharwani here: https://lnkd.in/gBCaPNN4

“The guidance from the DOJ (Department of Justice) and HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) acknowledges that the status quo is unacceptable and that communities must improve their responses to people who experience behavioral health crises.” — Daniela Gilbert, Director of Vera’s Redefining Public Safety initiative. The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance and public findings over the last year underlining the need to reduce police involvement in behavioral health situations. We know (and the data shows) that unarmed teams can safely and effectively resolve many crisis situations on their own. It’s time we prioritize unarmed crisis responses over police-led approaches to deliver health and safety for all. Read our joint statement with the The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law : https://lnkd.in/dCURDnJ9

📢Reminder! 9 days to register: A KMF Research Report Launch ❓ How can we facilitate the involvement of victims and witnesses in national and international accountability mechanisms for atrocity crimes and what is the psychological impact of these mechanisms on them? How can mental health and psychosocial (MHPSS) approaches improve witness evidence, victim well-being and ultimately, justice outcomes. The “Integration of mental health and psychosocial approaches in accountability mechanisms for atrocity crimes” research project, supported by the Knowledge Management Fund, aimed to fill this gap. To mark the release of the report, a launch event co-organized by the lead researcher An Michels, the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken and the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law will be held on May 16th, in-person at the Carlton Ambassador Hotel and online via Zoom. 🤝 Register now to discuss strategies, challenges, and best practices in ensuring meaningful and coherent use of MHPSS approaches in accountability-seeking processes. 🎟 For more information and registration: bit.ly/3WgesrE

If you are a therapist, community worker, program manager or leader working with men for relational repair, please consider joining us for this workshop with Tod Augusta Scott 💜 💬 About the Workshop: Safety and Repair – a 3-phase approach to address gender-based violence The training introduces individual practitioners and organizations to a process to address gender based violence which seeks to repair harm without creating more harm. The approach often involves two practitioners, one assisting each person involved through the 3-Phase process. Practitioners will learn about the principles and tools used in Narrative Therapy, Trauma Work and Restorative Justice. As practioners learn how to navigate through the 3-Phase process which makes safety and repair possible. The focus is on repairing harm and not necessarily on restoring an intimate relationship. At each phase, practitioners address how gender expectations and ideas that stem from trauma can foster abuse and impair people’s ability to repair harm, both when they are hurt and when they have hurt others, blending restorative processes that seek to repair harm and narrative practices such as: re-authoring identity; externalizing conversations; statement of position maps; outsider-witnessing; and re-membering practices. 🎟️ Register here: https://lnkd.in/eTGcfJ9p 💌 For inquiries, contact: info@menand.ca

📬 *New* to the research database. A number of studies have been done over the past couple of decades examining trauma experienced by lawyers working in particular fields of legal practice. This recent study focused on the experiences of domestic violence lawyers. "Participants reflected on recurring waves of hopelessness and vulnerability to professional burnout that resulted from a systemic lack of psychological support for lawyers faced with repetitive exposure to family trauma... Psychological self-care, mentoring, and supervision, as part of training and ongoing practice, emerged from the rich data as important recommendations for lawyers from students through to senior practitioners." https://lnkd.in/emsqBbzn #lawyers #wellbeing #research #trauma

 🧠 LANDMARK LEGISLATION | For 35 years, the more than 60 million Americans covered by Medicare weren’t able to access services from marriage and family therapists or mental health counselors. That is until a law, heavily influenced by research at Virginia Tech, went into effect in early 2024. Since then, about 43,000 mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists have enrolled as Medicare providers - making this the largest expansion in the program’s history. And according to Matthew Fullen, associate professor of counselor education, the work is just getting started. Read more about why Fullen’s advocacy and research is so pivotal here: https://lnkd.in/eTEGJ56V #mentalhealth #utprosim #medicare

Trauma informed practice is the only option here or else we are only perpetuating the issue. As humans we make assumptions on a daily basis and we wouldn’t get through the day without them. It’s normal practice. That’s why it’s so important to pause and reflect where possible. You do not know and can not assume you know everything about what people have been through and what drives their behaviours. As Survivors in Transition note: “The most up to date data currently in the uk comes from the office of national statistics crime survey 2021 which states that 7% of the 16-74 year olds experienced sexual abuse in childhood”. The impacts of this abuse are as diverse as the people who have been abused. It is a public health issue that has largely been ignored in the past. The tide is changing and trauma informed practice will be key in addressing this and ensuring the survivors of CSA are treated with the kindness, care, dignity and compassion they were robbed of in a crucial part of their lives. Want to do more to help? Here are some of the ways you can: - educate yourself and raise awareness of CSA - share posts from organisations such as Survivors in Transition to raise their profile. It’s likely there are people within your network who may need their support - learn local support agencies and how to signpost to them - if someone trusts you enough to disclose this information to you, listen to them and believe them. Signpost them to appropriate support - be a voice for survivors who have traditionally been ignored and marginalised - be a compassionate and kind person where possible. You do not know what people have been through At work: - build trust with people through clear and open communication. For instance, putting a meeting in without context with people can create high anxiety levels - set regular 1-1 catch ups with people and ask about their wellbeing. Learn what support your organisation can offer and talk about it in 1-1s regularly - create a culture of compassion for everyone to foster a workplace where people feel safe, including addressing stigma associated with trauma 🦋

Love this post by Iain Smith 😍 Having spent a considerable amount of time working on the impact of emotional neglect in my own upbringing, I still go back to do more work. We have to get better at acknowledging it's a REAL thing, This stuff really matters because otherwise we subconsciously pass the ripples onto the next generation. This stuff matters because it could be impacting us on a daily basis, through habits, diagnosed health conditions, moods, and/or behaviours. One big benefit of talking more openly about early life stuff, is in realising you didn't do whatever happened to you, to yourself. And this is where people can feel conflicted because they also want to defend their childhood. But parents and caregivers didn't always know or act for the best. They thought they did They never meant to hurt their kids. ~ they did what they could, with what they knew at the time ~ Now today, there's sooooo much evidence about the benefits of changing some early life beliefs and conditioning that aren't serving our adult selves. Perhaps these were beliefs we heard or were told to us. We trusted the adults in the room, so they must be right. What I love about Iain's post is that he's taken his story, he's done the therapeutic work, and is now using those understandings holistically to benefit his clients. Something to celebrate. This is what trauma-informed means, not only understanding it, but living it in as authentic a way as possible at any given time. Old habits do die hard, which is why the plethora of change-tools and techniques available today mean there is something for everyone. We just have to be willing to explore.