Working with Clients in Trauma: Serving Them, Protecting Yourself
March 16 at 3:00-4:30pm
This program is brought to you by the SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being in collaboration with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Committee for Public Counsel Services, Greater Boston Legal Services, and Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
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Special care is needed when working with clients and witnesses in trauma, to support them and to protect yourself. This session, led by Katharine Manning, author of The Empathetic Workplace: 5 Steps to a Compassionate, Calm, and Confident Response to Trauma on the Job and the U.S. Justice Department’s former Senior Attorney Advisor on victim rights, discusses a trauma-informed approach to interviewing and witness preparation, including advice on obtaining the information you need from your clients without needless re-traumatization. We will also discuss ways to prevent compassion fatigue, as well as self-care during the interview and afterward. The session will include time for audience questions, and attendees will leave with resources to help in their work with those in trauma. This hour-long session will be followed by a 30-minute breakout session.
Learning Objectives:
Define a trauma-informed approach.
Learn how to approach and conduct an interview with someone in trauma so that you can obtain the information you need without needless re-traumatization.
Develop the tools to protect yourself from compassion fatigue and mitigate its effects.
Speaker Biography
Katharine Manning is the author of The Empathetic Workplace: Five Steps to a Compassionate, Calm, and Confident Response to Trauma on the Job and the President of Blackbird. For fifteen years, Manning advised the Justice Department on victim issues in its most challenging cases, from terrorism to child exploitation to large-scale financial fraud. Manning now uses her expertise to help organizations prepare for and respond to challenges involving employees and members of the public who may be in trauma. A member of the California bar, Manning also served as an attorney with the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop in San Francisco, where she represented Fortune 500 companies in class actions, insurance, and media cases. She is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Virginia School of Law.
