Skip to content

I need help

Help for barristers

Barristers inherently face very specific challenges on a daily basis. If you need some help click on support to find contact details and advice on seeking support.

Get help

Help for clerks and staff

The professional lives of clerks and chambers’ staff include many potential stressors. If you don’t know how to broach an issue, want advice on your options.

Get help

Help for students and pupils

These resources have been designed specifically for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.

Get help

Resources

Our vision

Find out what Wellbeing at the Bar aims to achieve.

Read more

Policy & practice

Guidance on how to introduce wellbeing policies and initiatives and on tackling a wellbeing issue in chambers.

Read more

Media pack

Logos and banners to help you to promote wellbeing.

Read more

Case studies

Examples of successful wellbeing initiatives adopted by chambers, Specialist Bar Associations and the Inns of Court.

Read more

Support

Support for barristers

Who to talk to, how to get help in coping with the pressures and demands of life at the Bar.

Get support

Support for clerks and staff

Who to talk to and how to get help, resources are for clerks and staff themselves.

Get support

Support for students and pupils

Who to talk to and how to get help for those who have completed their BPTC and for pupils up to tenancy.

Get support

Assistance programme

The confidential 24/7 helpline with access to counselling for barristers, pupils, clerks and chambers’ staff.

Get support

Close

Search

Amanda Hardy KC on Chancery Bar Association’s year of wellbeing

We have had a busy and productive year promoting members’ wellbeing, which is an increasingly important part of the Association’s work. We continue to work closely with the Bar Council’s excellent Wellbeing at the Bar Working Group.

In addition, we have held regular events, including a recent seminar on 17th October 2018, chaired by Nigel Jones (a former partner at Linklaters) of the City Mental Health Alliance and featuring the brilliant Dr Bill Mitchell (who teaches at Kings College, London on the MSc programme on Mental Health Studies and is a visiting lecturer at the London Business School) who gave practical advice for practice enhancement, covering both strategies for coping with day to day stresses and how to recognise and help colleagues who may be struggling with mental health or overwhelm issues. Bill is a clinical psychologist who works with contemporary cognitively based psychological approaches to treat anxiety states, depression, stress reactions and chronic fatigue states.

Following his attendance at this event, Michael Todd KC, ex Chair of the Chancery Bar Association and ex Chairman of the Bar, wrote to all Chancery Heads of Chambers saying how impressed he was with the event and urging consideration of wellbeing issues more widely. We have had a very encouraging response, having had a high level of engagement from Heads of Chambers, barristers and clerks as a result.

We have also updated our Wellbeing Best Practice Policy in conjunction with the Institute of Barristers Clerks and relaunched it at our October event. We continue to run our popular pilates sessions on Tuesday lunchtime at the Central Health Clinic on Chancery Lane.

We are hoping to have Dr Rangan Chattergee, GP and author of the excellent Four Pillar Plan and Stress Solution books, come to talk at our next Wellbeing event.

Finally, part of our remit this year has been launching our project on the also increasingly important issue of Chambers Social Responsibility, of which wellbeing, of course, forms part. We have collaborated with the Bar Council on their recent help-sheet and organised a workshop at the Bar and Young Bar conference in conjunction with the Heart of the City organisation to highlight these important issues. We are collaborating with a national charity to assist in encouraging social mobility and promoting the Chancery Bar to a wider source of young people from diverse backgrounds and recognise that we must continue to address wellbeing issues both for current members and to enable us to encourage a wider diversity of people to come to the Bar in future.

Amanda Hardy KC is a barrister at 5 Stone Buildings. She is the Vice Chair of the Chancery Bar Association and Chair of the Wellbeing Sub Committee. 

Seminars & Events