Day 125: Trauma-Informed Lawyering
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
In Immigration Law Clinic class today, licensed social worker Dolly Sullivan of Intentional Wellness & Consulting led a conversation about trauma-informed lawyering.
The conversation was well timed. Clinic students have worked with clients for nearly three months now — long enough to encounter hurdles when clients have Instinctual Trauma Responses. They shut down, or they become angry. They stop answering phone calls, just when you need to speak to them most.
Often, the methods we learn as lawyers or law students for busting through obstacles drive us in exactly the wrong direction.
Working with Clients Who’ve Experienced Trauma
For example, one team has a client who all but stopped communicating with them recently, even though his trial is a month a way. Or perhaps because his trial is a month away. He cut a call short after four minutes. He missed an appointment with another professional that they’d worked hard to schedule for him.
Lawyers are trained to push when we face hurdles. The push may be hard and forceful or subtle and gentle, but we push. There are deadlines, we say. This is important for your case, we say.
As Dolly explained, our instinctive approach may cause a client to shut down. For someone who’s experienced trauma, the amygdala senses danger everywhere; the body becomes flooded with cortisol when the trauma gets triggered. Suddenly we’re back in that extremely dangerous situation. We fight, flee, freeze, or fawn. We may become paralyzed by tasks, even simple ones. We dissociate.
When something triggers trauma (like, say, preparing for a trial where you have to re-tell that trauma, with extreme consequences), the direct approach won’t work. “There are deadlines” won’t work.
Trauma-Informed Lawyering in Practice
As the students discussed the kinds of challenges they’re facing in their work, Dolly walked them through several hypothetical ways to shift the conversation, to pause, give the client time, and help ground them in a way they can hear.
First, name the reaction. “I feel like suddenly you’re not here with me. What happened there?” or “I can see this subject really affects you deeply, you’re very activated right now.”
Next, normalize the reaction. “It is completely normal that you don’t want to talk to me about this. I completely get it; no one should have to talk about things like this.”
You can pause, or offer to. “Would you like to take a break?” or “When I feel worked up, I find it helps to reconnect with my breath. Should we take a moment to let you do that?”
Then, you can empower. “Is there a way we can do this that would work better for you?” Give them some control over a situation in which they feel they have little.
After a difficult session where the client has experienced an Instinctual Trauma Response, you can ground. “We’ve done a lot of hard work today, but it will really help your case. Thank you. How is the weather where you are? Is it as cold there today as it is here? What does the sky there look like?”
Resources for Trauma-Informed Lawyering
Dolly provided lots of great resources on trauma, trauma-informed lawyering, and trauma-informed immigration lawyering specifically. I’ll share a few here: