Understanding the deep impact of trauma in the legal profession
Emily Jarrett is the Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program (MOLAP) clinician and well-being coordinator.
June is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month, and it’s important for lawyers and judges to be aware of how trauma can not only help them even better understand their clients, but also recognize the impact this difficult work can have on themselves as legal professionals.
The impact of trauma
Clients often seek legal counsel during times of significant vulnerability, including during and after experiencing trauma. PTSD can occur following trauma, and trauma could involve extreme or life-threatening events such as military service and combat, natural disasters, and serious accidents, or other distressing experiences such as unhealthy relationship dynamics, bullying, and emotional neglect.
Trauma can stem from not only what happened, but what happened afterward, including how a person made sense of the experience and the support that was available.
While most memories are functionally stored in the brain, traumatic memories are often stored without a coherent sense of time. This leads those who have experienced trauma to feel that past traumatic events are happening again in the present.1
Lawyers may work closely with clients or witnesses who are displaying PTSD symptoms from their trauma, including intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks, negative affect, irritability, hypervigilance and aggression, emotional stress, or physical reactivity following exposure to traumatic reminders. It’s also common for mental health concerns like depression, anxiety, and addiction to be a result of a traumatic experience.
Vicarious trauma in the legal profession
While lawyers may be prepared to help clients experiencing trauma, lawyers also need to be mindful of their increased risk of vicarious trauma due to repeated exposure to traumatic material and the experiences of others. Lawyers are humans too and may carry their own personal experiences of trauma, which can be triggered while supporting clients through experiences of trauma.
Legal work can involve discussing, drafting affidavits, analyzing reports, or closely examining forensic evidence that details gruesome, traumatic, or upsetting experiences and injuries of clients, victims, or witnesses.
The Missouri Lawyers’ Assistance Program is here to help lawyers experiencing trauma and/or PTSD. Just as someone seeks medical care for a broken arm, seeking out mental health treatment after a direct or indirect traumatic experience should also be normalized. Effective trauma treatment helps individuals safely process traumatic memory in a supportive environment.
Visit MoBar.org/MOLAP to schedule a no-cost, confidential counseling session with licensed professionals.
1 Kennard, D. (2025). EMDR Basic Training Manual: An EMDRIA Approved 6-day Training Program. [Training manual]. Personal Transformation Institute.
Additional references:
Johson, S. M., & Campbell, T. L. (2026). Emotionally Focused Therapy For Trauma. The Guilford Press.
https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trauma-and-stress
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7476614/