This week's "Ask Elinor" column explores what happens when family lawyers’ empathy and commitment begin to blur professional boundaries. Using the Drama Triangle, Elinor explains how the urge to “rescue” clients can lead to exhaustion and resentment, and offers practical ways to set boundaries, manage client expectations and provide compassionate support without being constantly available.
There are two kinds of holiday readers: those who finally escape family law completely ... and those who somehow end up reading novels that make them think about mediation, parenting and relationships anyway. If you're in the second camp, this list is for you. Whether you're reading on a sun lounger, in the garden after work or with a coffee on an August afternoon, summer is the perfect time to pick up a novel that makes you think differently. Rebecca Hawkins selects four novels that stayed with her long after turning the final page.
This week, Elinor Harvey explores a challenge that many family law professionals quietly recognise: the difficulty of switching off after work. Drawing on her experience supporting legal professionals, Elinor explains why carrying the emotional weight of clients' problems beyond the working day is so common, and offers practical, realistic strategies for creating healthier boundaries. It's a thoughtful reminder that looking after your own wellbeing is not a luxury, but an essential part of sustaining a long and rewarding career.
Welcome to the first instalment of our new advice column, where psychotherapist member Elinor Harvey answers your questions about the emotional realities of family justice practice. From managing difficult cases to maintaining resilience and professional boundaries, this series offers practical, compassionate guidance for the challenges that don't always feature in legal handbooks. In our first column, Elinor responds to a practitioner struggling with the emotional impact of a distressing case.
No one could say setting up your own firm is an easy option, but it can offer a new way to meet the individual needs of our clients, ourselves and our families
Blending the best of supervision, therapeutic support and coaching, OWP focuses on magnifying positive potential to bolster wellbeing and improve decision making
Shaili Gohil-Desai of Burgess Mee reflects on the emotional and practical realities of returning to work as a family lawyer after maternity leave. Balancing excitement, guilt and adjustment, she shares how support from colleagues, family and other working mothers helped ease the transition and normalise the evolving experience of combining career and parenthood.
Lesley Edelstein take a light-hearted look at what it would have been like representing Henry VIII as the ultimate high-stakes divorce client. Beneath the Tudor theatrics, it highlights the value of working as a team and adherence to Resolution’s Code when managing difficult clients while staying ethical, constructive and focused on long-term outcomes.
Effects on parental conflict resolution, legal professionals, and children's outcomes
Supervision can take as little as an hour a month, but benefit family practitioners in so many ways
As evidence continues to highlight the risks of mental ill-health in high-pressure legal environments, psychological safety should now be high up firms’ agendas
Strong leadership and decisive action are needed to embed practices that support and protect ment...
A coaching mindset is a way of thinking and communicating that builds trust, empowers clients and protects your wellbeing
The stigma against men discussing their health and emotions is dangerous and, in our profession, a 'perfect storm' of factors can lead to burnout and depression
All bereavements are different, but there are patterns. Trying to understand what is going on can help us find our way
Bereavement forces changes upon us just when it is hardest to take them on board
We are increasingly aware of menopause issues on separation, but we should not forget to consider the impact on ourselves
How do we help ourselves in our relationship connectivity with others?
Why seeking help, setting boundaries, and prioritising wellbeing is so difficult
Relationship therapist Adele Ballantyne, of Eleda consultancy, introduces her new series of columns, which starts by asking us to examine our own relationships
Five steps forward but much to do
What if, in order to *really* change things in family law, we started at the beginning and not at the end? What if family law firms routinely selected trainees with social work, sociology and psychology degrees as well as those with law degrees?
An inclusive workplace culture can ensure employees with disabilities can thrive, contribute thei...
Understanding what annoys or upsets us in other people can give us the power to make adjustments, to work on ourselves, and to adapt
Mental Health Awareness Week is a time when we are supposed to take notice of our own and others’...
An important part of the service we offer clients should be timely consideration of what happens ...
As a member of Resolution’s Wellbeing Committee, I never truly thought my own health could be at risk. But in our line of work we simply cannot afford to be complacent about the pressures we face
“What makes you qualified to work with people in professions that you know nothing or little about?” I was faced with this challenging question recently; it is the type of question I welcome because it opens an opportunity for discussion.
Our forum seeks to connect up initiatives driving change in wellbeing, family needs and education, and holistic ways of working
With stress and wellbeing issues reaching frightening levels in the profession, we must acknowledge our fears and vulnerability if we are to make crucial and lasting changes
In the first of a series of perspectives on lawyer (and client) wellbeing, Louisa Whitney of LKW Family Mediation reflects on the rise of the concept and how it works in practice
Welcome to our new column on the psychology of family practice with therapist, Annmarie Carvalho, former family law solicitor and mediator.
Family practitioners face the combination of a highly stressful job and highly stressed clients. An awareness of trauma – and vicarious trauma – can help manage cases and reduce the personal burden
Resolution’s new Wellbeing Committee has been set up to help change the over-stressful atmospher...
… or the case for supervision in family law
The focus on wellbeing in family practice is much-needed and crucial, but it shouldn’t obscure the need to observe professional boundaries
I was first attracted to this workshop by the line-up of speakers. It was hosted by Gillian Bisho...
For those hesitant about returning to the office, now is the perfect time to consider flexibility...
The famous fable as you know it, but where both reach the finishing line together, in their own w...
LawCare has released findings showing legal professionals at high risk of burnout, with 69% havin...
Cultural and systemic change are needed in family dispute resolution workplaces if we are to tackle the wellbeing crisis.
Part of the Spotlight Series, this 2 hour online session with Victoria Wilson, Marc Etherington, Matthew Richardson and Elizabeth Rimmer will provide you with top tips for managing your wellbeing and inspire you to prioritise it.
The recently launched Resolution ‘Wellbeing in Family Law Report’ makes sobering, if not unsurpri...
A key theme of this year’s Resolution National Conference was wellbeing. We are all currently wel...
“Trauma does not just happen to other people - it happens to us, our friends and family and our n...
Reflective practice gives us time and space to understand how we are really feeling and how famil...
Individual therapeutic support benefits family law professionals – which in turn helps clients.
A follow-up wellbeing webinar in partnership with LawCare, the mental health charity for the legal sector, exploring practical ways to address findings from our sector-wide report.
A follow-up wellbeing webinar in partnership with LawCare, the mental health charity for the legal sector, exploring practical ways to address findings from our sector-wide report. Free and open to all.
Part of the Spotlight Series, this 2.5 hour online session with Gillian Bishop, Danielle Barbereau, Chris Mills and Jane McCann will consider a range of reflective practice options that can support the wellbeing of family practitioners.
Part of the Spotlight Series, this 2.5 hour online session with Robyn Bradey, Joanna Fleck and Rachel Francis will tackle the key issue in the wellbeing of family practitioners: managing vicarious trauma.
This online 3-hour session, with trauma specialist and psychotherapist, Donna Butler, considers how to manage trauma in the workplace - both for those you work with and also how to look after yourself.
In terms of religious festivities this April, the three main monotheistic faiths will each be observing a particular element which involves discipline and focus. Christians worldwide will be observing Easter. Members of the Jewish faith will be observing Passover.
“It’ll all be over by Christmas!” With that famous phrase in mind, we went into lockdown in March...
With the court system creaking with the strain of under-resource and Covid-19, looking out for each others’ well-being is more important than ever.
From paralegal to partner – why you need resilience and how to find it
Comfortable chairs, birdbaths and Zoom workouts… small details create a better bigger picture
...
Nearly 75% of family justice practitioners have reported work-related pressures increasing since the first national lockdown
Resolution launches major new initiative to tackle the growing concerns over practitioners’ wellbeing
With mental wellbeing for family lawyers even more in focus now, it is worth remembering that despite the scary statistics, there are resources and strategies to hand…
Mark Randall uses his 40 years of experience using mindfulness based techniques to reset, refresh and re-calibrate himself whilst working in highly stressful, unpredictable and complex trading environments.
Elizabeth Rimmer shares practical tips on how to manage the day to day pressures of working in family law.
In this article from The Review, David Lister, Chair of YRes, reports back on the YRes Conference...
This video was recorded in June 2019 and is presented by Robyn Bradey (expert social worker based in Sydney, Australia).
It was heartening to see Sir Andrew McFarlane, the new President of the Family Division, and Sir James Munby, the former President, open their discussion at the PSU ‘Future of the Family Division’ event in October by talking about the importance of wellbeing for family law professionals.
In this recording, Matthew Richardson, from Coram Chambers and Resolution's National YRes Committee, presented the session below on wellbeing for family lawyers. It was delivered at one of Resolution's Code in Practice events in October 2018.
Annmarie Carvalho (Carvalho Mediation & Therapy) and Lauren Guy (Family Law Partners) discuss the issues in wellness in family law.