Time to reflect
Supervision can take as little as an hour a month, but benefit family practitioners in so many ways
“Share the emotional burden”, urged Sir Andrew McFarlane in his National Conference address – a thematic call to action permeating many of the conference’s events this year.
With those words ringing in our ears, we spoke on the panel, together with Marc Etherington, in the YRes workshop “Navigating toxicity in family law”.
In the workshop, as in this article, the focus was on reflective practice supervision as a particularly valuable measure, to help lighten the emotional burden arising from work in family law, so we can, indeed, share the burden. In the next issue, we will share some futher themes arising from the workshop.
While Kerry’s professional background is in psychotherapy and Sophie’s is in practice as a family lawyer, we are both trained reflective practice supervisors and write this together, informed by our professional experiences.
Wellbeing in the law – where do we begin?
In 2021 LawCare published its groundbreaking Life in the Law report, surveying over 1,700 legal professionals on their experience of everyday pressures. The findings were sobering: 69% reported experiencing mental ill-health in the previous 12 months, and most were operating at a high risk of burnout.
At the same time, the SRA was examining workplace culture across the profession, underlining a growing concern: the way law is practised is taking a serious toll on its people. For anyone working in the field, these findings won’t come as a surprise.
What is the “emotional burden”?
Few professions demand as much emotional resilience as family dispute resolution. On a daily basis, we are immersed in the fallout of relationship breakdowns, financial disputes and the often-fraught arrangements for children, witnessing, and in many ways absorbing, the distress, anger, fear and raw emotion of clients who may be experiencing the worst moments of their lives. Often, in real time.
For many clients, their lawyer or out-of-court practitioner becomes a lifeline: the calm, steady presence in the middle of chaos. When the expectations and responsibility that can come with that are not well managed, it can be an overwhelming experience for us. Perhaps particularly for lawyers, responding to urgent needs, managing complex disputes, and holding space for highly charged emotions means we are regularly exposed to what psychologists call vicarious trauma. Over time, this weight can show up as stress, fatigue, anxiety and the creeping threat of burnout.
Why wellbeing can’t wait
The family law arena is relentless. Between heavy caseloads, the demands of billable hours, and the need to respond urgently to client crises, lawyers encounter sustained levels of pressure that can harm both mind and body.
As the LawCare research highlights, many professionals report constant anxiety, while fewer than 60% feel able to speak about struggles at work. Left unaddressed, these challenges affect not only individual wellbeing but also team performance – the knock-on impact of team members either remaining present in work but unproductive or absent due to mental health issues is huge.
Traditional approaches to support – Employee Assistance Programmes or performance-focused supervision – are not enough on their own. These reactive measures often come into play only once someone is already struggling. And for some firms, finding out they have team members who are struggling comes too late.
We have lost too many people from the profession to suicide and although we recognise that we can’t always know what is going on for someone, we can’t ignore the data that shows how much pressure they are under. We should be shifting the emphasis from being reactive to proactive. We must do better. What’s missing is proactive, ongoing support embedded in workplace culture.
We can’t expect lawyers to be burdened with other people’s trauma for a prolonged period without the support mechanisms to offload some of that in return. They need dedicated, specialist support that gives them the strength and resilience to shore up themselves and their clients, which is where reflective practice can prove invaluable. We champion its use as a core part of building healthy workplace culture and improving personal resilience.
In a relational, confidential, non-judgmental setting, professionals can process the emotional impact of their work, explore challenges, and reflect on how personal and organisational factors are shaping their experience.
Unlike performance management or supervision, it is not about targets or outcomes, but it might include looking at how an individual responds to stressful situations, how client relationships impact their own emotions, or how organisational pressures shape their ability to perform.
This isn’t therapy either. But it does create a regular monthly pause – the space to turn inward and the chance to change perspective.
Supervision time is completely independent of your firm and anything you choose to talk about is confidential, unless there’s a safeguarding or serious professional conduct issue. It is your dedicated one-to-one time, usually for an hour a month, either in person or online. Kerry likens it to a snow globe which practitioners find themselves inside – part of the family’s story and even being shaken up with them with debris flying about. The act of reflective practice is like helping a person step out of being inside that snow globe and placing it into the palm of their hand. By changing perspective, you can see the narrative – the situation differently – with more separation.
The benefits of reflective practice supervision are twofold: on a personal level, reflective practice helps individuals reduce stress, learn ways to build resilience, and feel seen and supported in what can otherwise be isolating roles. On a professional level, it strengthens judgement, improves decision-making, and ultimately enhances the quality of service delivered to clients.
At its heart, reflective practice is about recognising that professionals are human. By giving them the space to process the emotional weight of their roles, organisations help ensure they can continue to work effectively, ethically, and sustainably over the long term. As Viktor E Frankl puts it, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Firms that we work with give very positive feedback on the real effect investment in supervision has had for them and their staff. They recognise that lawyers cannot pour from an empty cup; and that giving their teams the space and tools to manage the emotional weight of their work results in engaged and resilient staff, positive client experiences, and a stronger, more sustainable firm.
The business case for change
The cost of ignoring wellbeing is high. Mental health-related absence is estimated to cost UK employers £2.4bn per year – and that figure doesn’t account for issues like attrition, lost expertise, or reputational risk. By contrast, firms that build a culture of psychological safety and support don’t just protect their people – they strengthen the quality and resilience of their services.
The days when lawyers were expected to “grit their teeth and get on with it” are gone. Today’s professionals need leaders who are willing to invest in their mental health as a core part of organisational success. The very real financial rewards from doing so were quantified in Deloitte’s Mental Health Report 2022: a return of at least £5 for every £1 invested in proactive and sustained wellbeing measures.
We believe wellbeing in the workplace must be more than a tick-box exercise. It’s about changing a culture and embedding structures that sustain people over the long term, acknowledging the emotional realities of demanding professions. That is the way we genuinely share the burden. Other themes and means of making positive change will be covered in the next issue.