SOMATIC COACHING FOR LEGAL PROFESSIONALS

As lawyers, we're trained to solve complex, high-stakes problems, under intense pressures. As a result, we begin to compromise our well-being and learn to suffer in silence. This is not sustainable.

My name is Lindsey Frischer, I’m a lawyer and a somatic practitioner, and I want you to know two things:

1. If you're feeling overwhelmed and under-resourced, you're not alone. Our industry suffers the most with anxiety and depression, failing to prioritize the well-being of its practitioners; and

2. Your well-being and success are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are inherently linked.

Somatic coaching is an effective methodology in helping lawyers overcome anxiety, overwhelm and burnout caused by the challenging and demanding conditions of the legal industry, to feel more confident, fulfilled and on purpose.

Prioritizing our well-being extends beyond positive thinking and traditional modes of self-care (such as diet, exercise and rest). To sustain our role as effective advocates we need to learn new practices, competencies and skills that we can integrate into our daily lives to better resource ourselves without overriding, disconnecting or ignoring our needs in order to get the job done.

Somatics is a methodology that supports lasting transformation through the body. The “soma” refers to the self as a connected whole (mind & body) rather than an abstract, split or fragmented understanding of who we are. How you relate to your body - through feelings, sensations, emotions, thoughts, movements and perceptions - is integral to how you experience life, who you are, and your aliveness.

Somatic coaching for legal professionals provides skilled guidance to help you develop the capacity to better resource yourself and build the resilience to overcome anxiety and overwhelm to sustain your well-being while feeling more confident and fulfilled in your work and life. Through one-on-one support, you learn how to cultivate embodied self-awareness, the present-moment, non-judgmental attention to sensation, movement and emotion, to reconnect with your energy and your aliveness. Through evidence-based methods and somatic techniques you discover and dignify the ways you’ve been conditioned to react under pressure and explore how these tendencies, when left unchecked, may also get in the way of what matters to you, your relationships, and how you practice law.

Through the integration of somatic practice into your day-to-day you learn how to interrupt “business as usual” and cultivate the skills to reconnect, realign and recommit to who you are, what is important to you, and how you want to show up!

HOW CAN THIS HELP ME?

Through this transformational journey, you learn the pragmatic somatic skills (and new “legal” competencies) to:

• Dignify who you are and connect to the dignity of others

• Increase your capacity to prioritize your well-being and stay resourced 

• Cultivate greater embodied awareness, agency and accountability to sustain your role as an effective, impactful lawyer

• Take centered action that aligns your vision and your values with your sense of purpose 

• Become skillful, adaptive and resilient in facing the challenging conditions of the job and the pressures of the profession

• Stand out as a leader who is committed to justice and contributes to a culture of inclusion and belonging

WHO IS THIS DESIGNED FOR?

• You are a legal professional who struggles with anxiety, overwhelm, burnout and/or exhaustion from the existing conditions and demands of the job.

• You feel disconnected from your sense of purpose and value, and disillusioned and uncertain about the future of your career.

• You don’t know how to best adapt to your circumstances or prioritize your well-being in a meaningful way.

• You’re curious about what possibilities for support look like and are open to learning more.

If any of these descriptions ring true you’re not alone, and I’m glad you found your way here.

In fact, this is also how I felt within the first few years of my career as a corporate lawyer. Without knowing I could do anything to change or improve my existing circumstances, I made the decision to leave the practice of law out of a necessity to take better care of myself.

Through my own journey through somatic coaching, I was skillfully guided back into the life of my body, to integrate the parts of me I lost touch with or rejected; to learn how to better tend to my needs; and reconnect with my aliveness and what matters to me. I learned how to listen and to trust my inner-advocate and why I chose this path of service while realigning with my creativity, my power and purpose with greater confidence and dignity. As a result, I’ve returned to practicing law reconnected, realigned and recommitted to who I am and what I stand for.

I feel called to share this transformational work with other legal professionals, like you, who believe there is another way to care for ourselves as practitioners that not only prioritizes our well-being but also sustains our role as effective advocates.

CASE STUDIES

Samantha, public interest lawyer

“Even though I've worked as a lawyer for almost 10 years, I continued to deny myself permission to embody my natural and brilliant qualities as the fierce warrior, the advocate, the justice-seeker, the outspoken confident leader, the quick intellectual mind. Instead I adopted my conditioned shape: head down, frantically and almost-absently putting one foot in front of the other, working hard to serve those around me but without clarity, choice or agency, or tending to my own self and needs.

Through somatic coaching with Lindsey, I have come to both discover so much compassion for the ways I denied the fullness of my gifts, and also how to kindly and gently re-invite these parts of myself to flourish and become re-integrated into how I show up in the world. And this isn't some intellectual pursuit where I understand cognitively the importance of advocacy, self care or authenticity - this is the embodied experience and felt sense of these words that had for so long been completely elusive. I have more and more capacity to pause and consider how I want to act and show up. I am more discerning in the causes I stand up for and how to use my energy and agency and voice. Somatic Coaching with Lindsey has made me feel more grounded, alive, expansive and powerful than ever before.”

Aaron, trial attorney

I met Aaron shortly after he transitioned out of his practice of 5 years because he was burnt out, overwhelmed by his caseload and disconnected from his sense of purpose. As a veteran who was uncomfortable with the idea of “quitting" or “failure", Aaron felt insecure about why he left law and what to do next. After only a few weeks of somatic coaching he started to: (a) navigate change and uncertainty with less anxiety; (b) cultivate a compelling vision for his future; (c) prioritize his well-being to feel more resourced, energized and satisfied; and (c) take centered action in alignment with his values, vision and commitment towards what he cared about.

Within 3 months of working together, Aaron has returned to practicing law with a renewed sense of purpose and greater capacity to take care of himself (even under familiar work conditions and pressures). Aaron feels greater compassion and dignity for himself, and as a result, he feels more skilled in supporting his clients navigate their challenging life circumstances.