Professional & Corporate

Most professionals like lawyers are awesome.

 

Society could not do without them, and they work incredibly hard to deliver exceptional service to their clients.

 

I know this because prior to working as a mental health professional, I spent years in the legal profession working as a dispute resolution solicitor in private practice, General Counsel in-house and a consultant to firms and corporates. So I have a grip on the realities of corporate life.  Of course, legal professionals, whether judges or new graduates, barristers, solicitors or students at law, can and do experience the same kind of mental health challenges as others, but are more likely to do so according to the research.  The same applies to many professional service providers. A personal and deep understanding of the dynamics and implications of practice realities, work stress and burnout, and the chasm between the rhetoric around work life balance and the reality helps me understand the problems faced by professionals in corporate sectors.  

 

Some parts of practice are fantastic and well worth it. Yet other aspects, for many, can in time become overwhelming:

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• Stress, anxiety, depression

• Having to deal with difficult people – clients and other professionals

• Being the difficult other person

• Unreasonable client expectations - lack of respect or boundaries

• Tyranny of the billable hour and budgets

• Feeling like an imposter no matter what your CV says

• Procrastination

• The exploding file or the putrid brief

• Nightmares about matters or even still exams

• The poison chalice of promotion

• Marketing and business development

• Earning well but having no time to enjoy it or having empty relationships or none or, despite years of study and hard work, not having enough financial security to make all the stress and sacrifice worthwhile

• Being so far from the person you used to be, or want to be, that you don’t recognise yourself and disconnected from what really matters to you beyond salary

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I also appreciate the difficulty in asking for help from some of the support systems in place. I am independent of employers and employer support bodies, which may be of relief to some people who are worried about the implications of formal medical diagnoses.

 

I am keen to help professionals and others in the corporate world enjoy work and life again, to overcome disappointment or frustration and deal with whatever reduces their personal and professional effectiveness.

 

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