October is widely regarded to be Mental Health month. For many years, I’ve worked with lawyers in my practice, and today I want to specifically look at mental health and legal professionals.
One of the positive developments around mental health in recent years is the increase in conversations we are seeing on the topic. Thanks to these conversations, and other profile raising activities, most people are aware that mental health problems can affect us at any point.
Lawyers are by no means exempt.
What’s more, evidence suggests that lawyers are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems and poor feelings of wellbeing compared to other professional roles. The typical legal trait of powering through also means that lawyers often fail to miss the warning signs of an impending mental health issue.
And that’s before we reach 2020!
Now, as we deal with the uncertainty and disruption that the pandemic has injected into our lives, lawyers are dealing with working from home and all of their “usual” professional pressures. These conditions may prevail for a while still, making it essential to place a spotlight on mental health and wellbeing for lawyers.
What does wellbeing mean?
Wellbeing is an all-encompassing term. It describes a sense of health and ability/functioning across all aspects of our lives. This includes physical, emotional and mental health, and can be broadened to include a spiritual element too.
Prioritising our wellbeing pays dividends in more ways than one.
Firstly, taking care of our wellbeing provides us with the ability to stay healthy. Wellbeing doesn’t just happen, so to speak. You need to make an active commitment to look after yourself holistically. Think of how we take care of our bodies with our gym routines. Why do we think that our minds and emotions should just take care of themselves?
Secondly, mental health problems can often be prevented, or their severity reduced, by maintaining decent levels of all round wellbeing.
And thirdly, making an investment in your wellbeing helps build a strong foundation for a rewarding professional life.
In a year where many law firms are considering redundancies, it’s possible that lawyers may be feeling even more reluctant to stick their hands up and express a need for support. This is understandable, but problematic from a mental health point of view.
The gentle tips I share below are designed to help lawyers safeguard some space to look after themselves, and “put some petrol in their wellbeing tank”.
Communication is key
Communication is always essential, but a whole new layer of importance has been added in this tumultuous year.
Anxiety levels are off the scale. This is as true for lawyers as for anyone else.
No one can magically make Covid disappear, but we do have tools at our fingertips that can help us reduce the anxiety we are feeling.
By communicating our needs, we empower ourselves to ask for information and/or help.
For lawyers who manage staff, keeping them up-to-date with developments and plans is a strong way to build a cohesive work culture. This is true even during the era of remote working.
Likewise, I encourage my legal clients to communicate their anxieties or worries. I’m aware that this might not always happen in the work environment, as we all recalibrate our footing while navigating the uncertainty that prevails now. However, communicating with an external trusted mental health supporter, such as a therapist or coach, is also a way to take back some power in a safe space and reduce feelings of anxiety.
Keep your lunch break free
Taking a break is something your body, brain and mind will thank you for. Breaks boost productivity levels. Therefore, breaks are good for your legal career too!
Too often we get into a mindset that we need to be over our laptops or “on” with work all the time. Breaks can seem like a frivolous concept in this frame of mind.
They’re not.
You would normally have the journey to and from work as a natural bookend, but right now you may be working from the time you would usually leave the house or even earlier!
Carve out even a small bit of time to completely disengage from work. A lunch break is an ideal place in the day to do this.
Even 20 minutes away from your desk (whether you’re working from home or you are in an office again) to eat a healthy lunch is an investment in yourself. If you can couple this with some fresh air, maybe a quick walk is a possibility for you, so much the better. You’ll create a calmer mind space for yourself as you work through the afternoon.
Accept the feeling continuum
No feeling is here permanently, and that’s true for feelings of wellbeing too.
Things like mood, your “get up and go”, levels of stress etc. can go up and down on a daily basis. Sometimes they change from hour to hour.
Managing a high pressure role, as lawyers do, means that you are committed to deadlines, billing and working on the tasks at hand every day. You can’t work just when you feel like it.
But accepting that your levels of motivation, drive, stress and mood can go up and down helps us realise our humanness, rather than pressuring ourselves to act like robots all the time.
Lawyers are some of the worst culprits for putting on a brave face and powering through when things get rocky.
It’s here where I bring some “tough love” medicine to my legal clients and say that powering through these times is one of the worst strategies to employ right now. It’s the road to becoming overwhelmed. If we don’t take notice of being overwhelmed, this leads to burnout, and that’s not something you recover from over a long weekend. It takes a minimum of a year.
So work with yourself. Monitor when your energy levels are higher and when they’re lower, and adapt your working day, as far as you are able, to align with those energy levels. Watch your diet and how what you eat impacts your moods and energy level. Examine your sleep patterns and make the tweaks needed to rest well at night.
Your energy levels are connected to so many other things in your life.
Find ways to stay social
The importance of our social connections has come into stark focus as the pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions go on.
Keeping in contact with our loved ones is important. We’re all remiss to add another Zoom call to our schedule, but what about penning a card and using a bit of analogue technology with the post? Or having a phone conversation or a socially distanced chat with your neighbours?
You don’t need to invest lots of time into socialising, but find proactive ways to stay connected. As humans, our social connections contribute a lot to our mental health.
Find a trusted mental health supporter
I’ve worked with lawyers from London’s City law firms for 16 years. My approach combines therapy and coaching techniques, and my clients speak of how they like the momentum that carries. I also work with clients across the globe (as far away as the USA, Brazil, Switzerland and Ireland), and I’m happy to say this approach translates well across the world.
During this year, my clients and I have conducted our sessions via online therapy. These sessions are proving to be as rigorous, warm and engaging as in-person therapy sessions.
The value of embarking on a journey with a trusted mental health professional is that you create a safe and confidential place for yourself to just be authentic . A place where you know you’ll be heard and not judged. You can share all aspects of yourself without reservation, and in doing so build a better future for yourself.
My legal clients also work with me as a sounding board for the professional challenges they’re experiencing. It’s not always guaranteed that lawyers will be professionally supported. I help lawyers debrief, as they share what their work is like and how they are coping.
Please feel free to contact me if you’re interested in discovering how therapy could help you during this time, and beyond. I’d be delighted to chat with you and answer any questions you may have.