Resources

VIPs The Menninger Clinic in Houston runs a Professionals in Crisis Program (PIC) designed to “minimise the dysfunctional impact of the patient's position, power, prestige, wealth, or knowledge on the treatment process” [1]. Treating high achieving, well-educated individuals described as ‘very important persons’ (VIPs) presents clinicians with unique challenges. The clinic treats lawyers, physicians and mental health professionals, business executives and entrepreneurs, professional athletes, artists, priests, rabbis and ministers amongst

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Assume nothing, Believe no one, Check everything. Anon   Uriah Heep, Lionel Hutz, Atticus Finch – what do they have in common? Four syllables each and, in ascending order of reliability, fictional lawyers. Although we have learned recently that Finch was a casual racist … Lawyers are a disparate group. We legislate for and advise most of humanity. Justice is universal. Lawyers come from every background imaginable and practice in

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This is where the idea of reverse therapy comes in. Reverse therapy applies the psychological theories which inform rehabilitation, but at the prehabilitation stage. The stresses that we experience as lawyers (or whatever) are not simply physical, or caused by excessive workloads or long hours. They are also intrapersonal and interpersonal. The way that we cope with stresses is significantly determined by the meaning that we attribute to them and

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They tried to make me go the rehab but I said, “No, no, no”. Amy Winehouse   Prehab can keep us in the Goldilocks zone. A Goldilocks planet is one which falls within its star’s habitable zone. The earth is in the sun’s Goldilocks zone, not too hot, not too cold, but just right, and containing the conditions for life to flourish. Rehabilitation provides the setting for recovery from illness,

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A number of studies have recently emphasised the benefits of living a stress-full life. (Yup ... you read right ... stress-full.) The studies tend to contradict received wisdom that assumes that 'stress' is undesirable and should be eliminated from our experience as much as possible. It's important that we have strategies to manage excessive demands and we'll look at these later. Crum But, it's also vital to recognise that we

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Have a look at the pic.  A four coloured juggling ball.  We’ll call it a 'stress ball' for the purpose of this illustration. It shows progressions of stress in our own experience.  The illustration is oversimplified, but may help to illustrate a complex dynamic.  The yellow area represents insufficient pressure which can lead to boredom, rigidity, monotony, clock watching, or ‘under-stress’.  The green zone represents appropriate pressure which brings with

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