Bearing Witness and Being Well: Strategies for High-Stress and Trauma-Exposed Community Legal Work
Waterloo Region Community Legal Services - March 23, 2026
Slide Deck
Click here to download a notetaking version of the slide deck.
Workshop Resources
These are the resources I mentioned in the workshop:
Why we’re not doing ‘toxic positivity’
988 - Canada’s 24hr Suicide Prevention Hotline
The Burnout Challenge (book) by Christina Maslach
The State of Mental Health in Canada 2024 (CMHA Report)
Towards a Healthy and Sustainable Practice of Law in Canada (University of Sherbrooke Report)
Work Won’t Love You Back (book) by Sarah Jaffe
Vicarious Resilience research (Hernandez et. al.)
Witnessing Our Collective Ethics (values discussion exercise) by Dr. Vicki Reynolds
Wade, A. Small Acts of Living: Everyday Resistance to Violence and Other Forms of Oppression. Contemporary Family Therapy 19, 23–39 (1997)
PROQOL.org (Professional Quality of Life Scale questionnaire)
Self-Compassion practices by Dr. Kristin Neff
Coming Home to Secondary Traumatic Stress by Françoise Mathieu
Low-Impact Debriefing Protocol (The Compassion Fatigue Workbook by Françoise Mathieu)
Learning Brain vs. Survival Brain (video)
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself (book) by Nedra Glover Tawwab
Other Resources
These are other resources I thought might be useful to you:
Boundaries Around Emotional Labour: Here’s a video containing some great ideas for boundary phrases when dealing with challenging, aggressive, rude, etc. client interactions; it talks about how to stay professional while being assertive. And this article about Managing Emotionally Charged Client Interactions has some really useful strategies.
De-Escalation: Here are a few de-escalation essentials from a recent workshop I did for a drop-in centre. I also like this graphic from CTRI, 7 Tips for Deescalating Potentially Violent Situations.
Not taking things personally: This is a great chart outlining recommendations for viewing & managing challenging situations through a trauma-informed lens. And this is a more general set of tips for working toward taking things less personally. It is written for adults with ADHD, but has useful info for anyone.
Workplace Strategies:
Workplace Strategies for Mental Health: resources for employees, leaders and orgs. Good self-advocacy resources here!
General:
The Compassion Fatigue Workbook by Françoise Mathieu
Beyond the Cliff (Video) by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky - talks about the impact of secondary trauma on trauma-exposed helping professionals (cw: brief mention of suicide)
Trauma Stewardship and The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul (books) by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky
When the Body Says No: the Hidden Cost of Stress by Dr. Gabor Maté
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem - embodied strategies for racial justice
Your 3-step guide to better boundaries at work (video) - Nedra Glover Tawwab