Working with Vulnerable People
6 hours verifiable CPD
As solicitors, we can often feel powerless in the face of our clients’ emotional difficulties and needs. Whether dealing with clients experiencing distress, trauma, overdependency or suicidality, legal professionals must be equipped with the skills to navigate these sensitive situations effectively.
Through three interactive two-hour sessions, this course provides practical tools to manage vulnerability with care, ensuring that you can support your clients with empathy, while also maintaining your own resilience in the face of emotionally demanding situations.
Learning outcomes:
- An understanding of the most prevalent mental health disorders and conditions you are likely to come across as a lawyer including addiction;
- A basic appreciation of the fundamental make-up of the brain and a dash of neuroscience!
- Insight into the impact of distress, stress and trauma on the brain and how it can affect our clients;
- An appreciation of dependency dynamics, how they develop with clients and how we can sidestep problematic relationship dynamics;
- A good understanding of best practice, both therapeutically and also from the Law Society as to how to work well with suicidality and the most vulnerable of clients; and
- Effective techniques for working with vulnerability including signposting to appropriate resources.
Session Content
Session 1: Mental health disorders, the brain and the law
An introduction to the main mental health disorders and conditions lawyers need to be aware of. Also including a brief introduction to basic neuroscience, the impact of distress, stress and trauma on the brain.
Session 2: Further forms of vulnerability, dependency dynamics and how to work well with vulnerable clients
In this session we cover addiction, elderly clients and touch on neurodiversity. We delve into problematic dynamics that often develop with clients around dependency on their lawyers. We cover some of the basic skills for working with this client base, incorporating Law Society best practice.
Session 3: Further skills for working with vulnerability and suicidality
In this final session we cover more advanced skills and address those most difficult of situations – when you’re faced with suicidality either in a client or someone else in the work arena. We cover good practice for dealing with such situations, effective signposting and how law firms can look after their people if ever they find themselves dealing with such a situation.
Speakers
Testimonials from training with Annmarie
It was great to have Annmarie from The Carvalho Consultancy help us think through issues of conflict, cohesion and collaboration with a focus on our work in family law. As a former family lawyer herself, Annmarie is able to tailor her sessions on the area of law we specialise in and tailor the training accordingly. Annmarie is practical and clear in her presenting style. She quickly builds trust and our whole team valued the time we had together.
Annmarie was one of the best speakers I have listened to (and I have listened to many in my 24 years of practising!). She was both hugely informative and funny and engaging at the same time. It’s unusual to have such high audience participation on these things.
Annmarie’s training on the subject of vulnerable and suicidal clients was most valuable for the family department at Anthony Gold, both in terms of client care/support, but also reminding us that client trauma is soaked up by fee earners. I have no doubt that this training will be relevant to other departments in my firm and I have already recommended it.