This course is designed to educate attorneys about secondary traumatic stress and how it can adversely affect the attorney. It is based upon the understanding that working with traumatized individuals is part of many attorney’s professional practices. Indeed, many of us spend considerable time with victims of trauma, either learning their stories in person or through secondary sources like reports, photographs, recordings, interviews with others and through pretrial and trial testimony. These interactions can take a significant emotional toll of the professional, particularly with repeated exposure over time.

We will discuss primary and secondary trauma, mental health conditions that can result in untreated secondary traumatic stress, and strategies to address our exposure. (Sarah MacGillis, presenting)(One mental health credit applied for) Registration