Compassion Fatigue Among Lawyers

BE WELL

BY DIANA REINHART, LMFT, JD

A few months ago, Pam noticed she stopped sleeping well. A busy estate planning attorney, she was working extra hard with a high caseload.

But what was keeping her up at night was something else, something more specific. She couldn’t get a particular case out of her head—one involving a young mother who died in a gruesome car accident, leaving her husband and two children behind.

Pam thought of the husband’s face at night. She wondered whether it could happen to her family. When she went to work in the mornings, more clients shared sad stories, and she left the office feeling drained.

Pam was struggling with compassion fatigue, the profound emotional and physical exhaustion that helping professionals and caregivers can develop. Over time, she stopped enjoying her job and dreaded going to work.

Compassion fatigue might sound like a mushy term reserved for nurses, social workers, and priests, but attorneys suffer from it as well. It is most common in practice areas where clients routinely share their pain, fear, and suffering.

Burnout—a more familiar term in the legal industry—is different. Burnout refers to the exhaustion that results from workplace conditions like too many tasks and not enough resources. Compassion fatigue deals with an attorney’s response to clients’ stories and experiences.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF COMPASSION FATIGUE?

The symptoms of compassion fatigue fall into three categories: emotional, cognitive, and physical.

Emotional symptoms.

These symptoms include fear and anxiety, feeling overwhelmed and depleted, inexplicable guilt and shame, self-doubt, powerlessness, numbness, and irritability and anger.

Cognitive symptoms.

Our brains function differently because anxiety and fatigue compromise our higher-order thinking skills. Cognitive markers include difficulty concentrating, confusion, preoccupation with external stressors that cannot be controlled, rumination on client stories and problems, and loss of a sense of direction or purpose.

Physical symptoms.

Physical symptoms result from the release of stress hormones. These can include changes in breathing and heart rate, difficulty falling or staying asleep, problems with appetite or digestion, headaches, decreased libido, chronic pain, and immune problems.

Certain things can make an attorney more susceptible, too. These include being highly conscientious and self-giving, perfectionism, low social support, high personal stress, and not prioritizing self-care. Many attorneys lament that some of these qualities—such as conscientiousness—are exactly what they believe make them good lawyers in the first place.

WHAT CAN LAWYERS DO?

Here are some suggestions for prevention and treatment:

Cultivate a life outside work.

Having a healthy social network outside of the office is important, and also hobbies that are not work-related. These things give the overworked parts of your brain a rest and broaden your life.

Accept and turn toward feelings.

Don’t stuff your feelings down. Notice the anxiety and emotions and ask yourself why they are there, and what they are trying to tell you. Talk about it with a friend or mental health professional.

Ensure that your expectations are reasonable.

You can help your client, but you cannot save your client. You cannot take away all of your client’s pain. Check in with what you are expecting of yourself. Is it reasonable?

Take time away that involves a change of scenery.

Changing scenery forces other parts of your brain online, particularly if you combine it with exposure to nature, creativity, other people, or sports.

Set boundaries.

Take a look at your caseload. Is it too much? Are there things you could delegate or resources you could take advantage of? Search for the places where you can set some limits.

Tap into love.

Connect with your partner, kids, other loved ones, and pets. Do something with them that feels positive. When we tap into our hearts, our nervous systems tend to relax and we feel less anxious.

Create a workplace culture of collaboration.

Promote collaboration rather than a work culture of “lone rangers.” There is less of a risk of compassion fatigue when attorneys feel they can debrief with and feel supported by their colleagues.

Don’t forget the self-care.

Self-care—such as exercise, a regular sleep schedule, and self-soothing activities such as deep breathing—helps. Consider scheduling activities with a friend and putting them on your calendar to keep you on track.

If you need someone to talk with now, call the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program (TLAP) at 1.800.343.TLAP. The service is confidential and can connect you with mental health professionals and other resources. AL

Diana Reinhart, LMFT, JD, is a therapist in private practice in Austin. Learn more about her at embarkcounselingcenter.com.