MIDTOWN MANHATTAN · TELEHEALTH

Lawyers Therapy

My prior experience as a law firm associate informs my work with attorneys. Having practiced in law firm settings, I am familiar with their demands and pressures and thus understand readily the overall context for the concerns attorneys bring to therapy.

When one or both partners are attorneys, a central challenge in couple’s therapy often involves how to sustain a relationship and a family life alongside the intensity and unpredictability of legal practice.
In individual therapy, the work may focus on distinguishing stress and anxiety that is normative from stress and anxiety that isn’t; developing more effective and appropriately assertive ways of functioning in professional and personal contexts; and managing pressures in ways that can support sustained performance.

At times, therapy also provides a setting for considering questions of professional fit—within a particular firm or practice area, or more broadly in relation to one’s career trajectory. Other times, the therapy may involve reflecting on long-term life goals and examining to what extent work at a law firm aligns with those goals.

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More Information on Counseling for Lawyers

I worked for five years as a lawyer at big law firms, and I remember the pressure and intensity that law firm environments can bring to bear on lawyers and non-legal staff. This past work experience has informed my work with lawyers in individual and in couple’s therapy. Thanks to this experience, the attorney and I share a common understanding of law firm life and are then able to identify the source(s) of distress more readily.

That distress may emanate principally from communications with other attorneys, and in such cases, the work may involve developing specific interpersonal skills to manage those communications and interactions more effectively. Often, the distress also derives from worries about job security; billable hours; productivity; work product quality; or efficient time use. In other instances, the distress derives from lack of control over one’s personal schedule and from uncertainties about when to seek guidance from senior attorneys and when to make independent judgment calls.

In many cases, I have worked with attorneys and helped them clarify their circumstances and the expectations they have of themselves versus the expectations others have of them. I have also helped attorneys become more direct, effective and assertive in their professional interactions and have helped them develop skills that minimize the impact of their anxiety on their work.

 

In a few cases, the therapy has provided the space for attorneys to consider whether their current practice group or firm constitutes a good fit. Sometimes attorneys have also considered changing legal fields, from litigation to corporate, for example. Most important is that attorneys find a setting where they receive the blend of support and independence, they need in order to thrive.

Because of my past work as an Associate, I grasp more readily the nature of the distress my attorney clients experience on the job and at home.

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