Transcending Lawyer Well-Being Through Stigma-Free Recovery & Support

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If you are feeling more stressed and burned out than your clients…

If you keep numbing your pain, so you meet productivity goals…

If you’re afraid to seek help because of stigma…

If you think you are an outlier who is invincible...

Then The Lawyer Well-Being Academy is for you.

Are You Taking On The Burdens Of The World?

 As a Tax Attorney, I understand the drive for perfection, need to advance your career, and do whatever is necessary for success. 

Taking on the burdens of the world, in addition to carrying your own, is hard work. But doing it without addressing your emotional well-being first is like writing a brief with both hands tied behind your back while wearing a blindfold.

The 2020 ABA Profile of the Profession survey shows lawyers have higher rates of addiction and mental illness than the general population. Data shows that:

  • 21% qualify as problem drinkers
  • 28% struggle with depression
  • 19% have symptoms of anxiety
  • 11.5% report suicidal thoughts 

Do you secretly identify with these results?

If you answered yes, then learning how to acknowledge and manage your emotions is the key to improving your overall well-being.

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The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being report lists six dimensions of well-being:

Occupational, Emotional, Physical

Intellectual, Spiritual, Social

Emotional well-being reverberates through all six, which means it is critically important to notice our emotions and learn how to manage them instead of assuming mental health is the issue.

The Lawyer Well-Being Academy offers law firms, lawyers and law schools:

  • 1:1 coaching and recovery support

  • Interactive CLE seminars and workshops, including, but not limited to: 

    • Mindfulness is Great, but How is Your Heart?

    • Grief Unplugged: How Grief Infiltrates Law Firm Culture

    • Grief, Diversity & Inclusion -- They are Interrelated

    • Anxiety, Burnout, Depression, & Stress = Grief

  • Training for Law School Faculty

    • How to Promote Well-Being in the Classroom

    • Lawyer Well-Being Course/Lecture Series for Law Students

  • Training & Education for Law Firm Management on Well-Being, including New Lawyer Orientation

  • Audits of Well-Being Related Policies and Practices

  • Group Coaching Program -- Coming Soon!

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Are You Hiding From Grief?

The impact of grief is hidden in law firms. Why? Because we live in a grief-avoidance society, and most of us don’t know how to define grief. It is the normal and natural reaction to change or loss of any kind—not just physical death.  There are over 40 types of loss that result in grief.  

Grief greatly impacts a lawyer’s ability to concentrate, function, and focus. The consequences of not addressing grief—e.g. mental illness and substance abuse—are costing law firms billions of dollars in human capital, revenue, and productivity.

 

For lawyers, loss and change are daily issues for our clients. But we tend to wait until it is too late to value ourselves enough to manage our own personal loss and change. 

Lawyers are not invincible, we are human. As humans, we experience loss and change daily. We cannot process what we fail to acknowledge.

When we fail to process loss and change, the impact of grief becomes cumulative leading to anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

Practicing Law. Coaching Well-Being.

Hi, I’m Heather D. Horton, Esq., ACC.

With nearly two decades working as a Federal Tax Attorney, I understand the grief lawyers—like you—bury and hide all too well. 

Using my grief coaching credentials, I empower attorneys to turn pain into power while creating cultures of well-being within law firms. 

From JD to LLM to ICF ACC, I use my credentials and know-how to create stigma-free well-being.

Let’s unmask YOUR hidden grief!

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What My Coaching Clients Say...

Christina O.

Heather showed me exactly how to experience and understand grief and how to make way for authentic healing by “completing the loss.” 

Dawn P.

This process is so simple but the results are powerful and life-changing. 

 

Barbara O.

Heather is gentle, but laser-focused. My first encounter with her left me feeling safe and assured. Heather is professional and very easy to talk to. 

You Have Questions. I Have Answers.

Stop Focusing On Symptoms.

Start Addressing Your Well-Being.

 

The legal profession is falling short when it comes to well-being because we are focusing on the symptoms and not the root cause of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse, aka GRIEF.

Lawyer well-being is not an intellectual issue; it’s a heart issue. 

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