LAP PUBLICATIONS
LAP Publications are released monthly featuring clinical information on important topics written by LAP’s team of experts for the legal profession.
For more information about LAP Publications or to be added to the LAP Publications distribution list for your office, association, or agency contact Shelley Sandoval: ssandoval@illinoislap.org
Best Thinking in Worst Case Scenarios: Improving Decision-Making Under Stress
How is your decisionmaking under stress? In uncertain times? Attorneys are more resilient than most of the population, corect? No. Wrong. We are less resilient.
Our profession is an honorable calling, but also one that can take an extraordinary personal toll. Check our ABA Barbara J. Dawson’s article based on LAP Executive Director Dr. Diana Uchiyama’s presentation.
Original Article publication credit: ABA Litigation Magazine, Spring 2020, Barbara J. Dawson
Some Days are Better Than Others: Self-Care Tips for Lawyers During a Pandemic
Being a lawyer is emotionally hard. Being a lawyer during a pandemic is even harder.
Click to read about the realistic factors of lawyering in a pandemic and gain insight, tips and trick towards balancing your own self-care now and into whatever the future may hold.
Preventing Suicide
Simply reaching out and showing someone that you care can be someone’s lifeline. Understanding what we can do to help can be scary and leave you feeling helpless. This article explains how to help, what to do if you are experiencing any suicidal symptoms, and what to to next.
You don’t need to do any of these things perfectly to make a difference. You don’t need to be a trained professional, simply caring for and connecting with another individual can help.
Compassion Fatigue: How to Stay Healthy When Working in Unhealthy Settings
Compassion fatigue is often considered an occupational workplace hazard, yet make us vulnerable to developing anxiety, depression, substance use problems, and ruminating thoughts related to the work we do. Compassion fatigue is treatable and manageable, this article helps you to identify what this is, how it functions in your daily work, and techniques for understanding how to handle it.
Special thanks to the Illinois State Bar Association Child Law Section for reprint permission.
Psychological Tolls – An expanded look at civil and political unrest, economic instability, and COVID-19
It’s clear that the year 2020 and the ramifications of the many events that have transpired throughout it have resulted in significant increases in mental health problems including depression, anxiety, stress, domestic violence, suicidal ideation and behaviors.
“The basic foundation for increasing behavioral motivation and health includes taking good care of yourself, getting regular exercise, having adequate food and nutrition, and getting plenty of sleep.”
Fear No Evil: Covid19 Driven Anxiety
Fear and anxiety, driven by the uncertainty of a new pandemic, seemingly changed our world and behavior in the course of a few days.
Understanding the role of uncertainty and mental heuristics in anxiety can help us to forge ahead as we navigate the new normal. Click to read about strategies to mitigate thoughts and emotions in uncertain times, gain quick methods to identify and tackle anxious behaviors, and gain invaluable resources for today’s ever-changing landscape.
COVID 19: The Short and Long Term Mental Health Consequences
There has been a tremendous disruption to the natural rhythm of life that we previously engaged in prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is important to consider the facets of our lives this pandemic has impacted as we work towards our new normal. As individuals are pushed to new limits, understanding the impact on our mental health in the immediate and foreseeable future is essential to recovery and revival.
Maladaptive Perfectionism: Will I Ever Be Good Enough?
In working with law students, lawyers, and judges we are often confronted by the high internal and external expectations that legal professionals face and set for themselves in their professional and personal lives.
Maladaptive perfectionism is a term that embodies the “refusal to accept any standard short of perfection” (Oxford Dictionary), viewed clinically as a multidimensional concept with several different components.
Keep Calm and … Thrive
Developing resilience through practice, learning, and rest.
Resilience is the ability to adapt, learn, grow, and thrive during times of adversity, challenge, and change. Every person and group of persons has the potential to be resilient. Read on to understand the mechanics of resiliency in today’s legal practice.
How Are You? Mental well-being, everyday conversations, and achieving your best practice
Mental well-being, everyday conversations, and achieving your best practice.
Throwing out the standard “how are you” script in an effort to move beyond mental health stigma. Identify, consider, align and validate your communication in your personal and professional life when it comes to well-being.
Do You Worry About How Much You Worry?
While anxiety can be helpful in normal amounts to motivate and accomplish goals, at its worst, it can cause serious impairment and can lead to feelings of depression, alienation, deficiency, and potentially thoughts of suicide…suffering in silence is not the answer. When anxiety crosses the threshold from normal to excessive, it’s time to seek help.