Help for anxious clients during legal proceedings

Being involved in legal proceedings will create high levels of anxiety:

• Anxiety of the process itself
• Anxieties around appearing in court
• Fear of what lies beyond the judgement

Having worked with numerous clients going through legal proceedings, in addition to the above sources of anxiety, for many their primary fear is around their children and doing what is best for them.

I am an anxiety specialist.  I work with adults but also have a specific focus on working with teenagers and am engaged as a speaker on anxiety to teenage audiences.  Teenagers will clearly be influenced by their parents’ situation and often struggle to express their desires for fear of upsetting a parent or indeed, fear of the parent.

My approach can help in the following ways:

In high states of stress, people can either become overly emotional leading to very knee jerk decisions.  Or they may shut off emotion and revert to very logical decisions which can lead to inner conflict and distress.

Through using therapeutic techniques, clients can review the path ahead, balancing logic and emotion to find the path that is best for them.  This can then support a more effective relationship with their legal counsel and greater ability to move on beyond the judgement.

High levels of adrenalin in the system will inhibit performance in court.  Whilst some adrenalin is positive, my work will help the client manage their internal state and be mentally prepared to communicate effectively and maintain mental resilience in high levels of stress.

Fear is a response to vulnerability.  Clients will feel highly vulnerable as the judgement is in the hands of the court.  Fear will also be stimulated by the unknown, leading to people catastrophising.  These two stimuli will result in your client spending much of their mental resources on matters of the future, making them less able to deal with the decisions required now.

The work we do focuses on practical techniques to assist people to focus on the elements that they can control which heightens mental resilience.

By helping the teenagers to manage their anxieties, this can help change the family dynamics and lead to a better result for all.

Client A was divorcing her husband for coercion.  She was terrified at him having access to her two children.  She was not sleeping or eating and was finding it hard to address the legal requirements being made of her.  By wanting it all over as quickly as possible, she was limiting the strength of her case.  Through our work together she:

• Gained clarity of her purpose, allowing her to make decisions that helped her counsel
• Refocused on her mental and physical health leading to her moving away from the path of least resistance to prioritising the battles that needing fighting
• Have more effective discussions with her children to understand their desires rather than purely considering what she felt they needed.

Client B was divorcing her husband after he was imprisoned for GBH.  There were no children involved. At the start of our work together, she was avoiding dealing with the legalities and was unable to respond coherently to the requirements of her.  Her response to the stress was avoidance.  Through our work together she:

• Was able to gain focus and clarity leading to much swifter progress on proceedings
• Accessed previous memories that strengthened her case of on-going long term abuse.

Please feel free to contact me for a confidential conversation on how I may be able to support your clients or pass my contact details on to them for a free, no commitment chat.