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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.

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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.

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Help for students and pupils

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

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Resources

Our vision

Find out what Wellbeing at the Bar aims to achieve.

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Policy & practice

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

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Media pack

Logos and banners to help you to promote wellbeing.

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Case studies

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

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Support

Support for barristers

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

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Support for clerks and staff

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

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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.

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Assistance programme

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

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Staying well

Although rewarding and exhilarating the life and work of a barrister and clerk is too often demanding and pressured. When pressure becomes chronic you may experience some of the stress response symptoms outlined in this short film. These are early warning signs, informing you that you need to start making healthy choices. Dr Bill Mitchell presents an animation explaining wellbeing and what you can do to maintain your resilience and perform well.

Play

What is Wellbeing?

Wellbeing is defined as being as physically fit as you can be, enjoying life and work, being connected to positive others and retaining an ability to both keep perspective about and ability to recover from difficult times.

The Five Drivers of Personal Wellbeing

A significant piece of work by The New Economics Foundation identified five drivers of personal wellbeing. These are strongly supported by Mind, the mental health charity and the NHS.

arrow-1Take notice

Have you noticed that life moves faster these days?

After years of research, experts on stress and depression like Professor Mark Williams at Oxford University have concluded that our lives are indeed more full and demands are higher on all of us. It can sometimes feel that life is moving at an unrelenting pace. Consider how frequently you have a conversation and struggle to recall the details afterwards, or travel to court or chambers and barely remember a moment of your journey. Taking a moment to pause often seems like a luxury we cannot afford.

Compelling evidence has been building in the past forty years which unequivocally demonstrates the value in becoming more aware, moment to moment. When we are able to live more in the present we start to train our brains to reduce rumination and worrying about future states. This leads to increased positive mental states, self-regulated behaviour and boosts self-knowledge and awareness.

“By paying attention to our thoughts and feelings in this way, we can become more aware of them, less wrapped up in them, and more able to manage them”
Ed Halliwell (Mental Health Foundation report, 2010)

arrow-2Be active

If ever there was a ‘silver bullet’ for great all round personal wellbeing, it is regular physical activity.

The physical benefits include:

  • Reduction in risk of Type 2 diabetes
  • 35% reduced risk of heart disease and stroke
  • 50% reduced risk of some cancers
  • 30% reduced risk of premature death
  • 83% lower risk of osteoarthritis

Regular physical activity also has known mental health benefits. The risk of depression is lowered by 30%. Cognitive decline is also reduced by up to 30%. Physical activity has a powerful impact on the increased production of endorphins (those ‘feel good’ hormones) and a reduction in cortisol levels (the ‘stress’ hormone).

Studies demonstrate that physical activity also benefits concentration and focus; Dr John Ratey, a Harvard Professor of Psychiatry, recommends taking physical activity before an important public performance in order to sharpen focus.

Memory and mood are boosted by being more active, as is productivity. These are all hugely important skills for your successful career. Being able to regulate emotional responses, remember key case law and use your time efficiently both in and out of the courtroom gives you a huge advantage over the opposition.

It may be tempting to treat physical activity in the same way as our busy lives and work out intensely. However, on a stressed body and mind this can have a negative impact. If you are experiencing symptoms of extreme fatigue, a hard bout of physical activity will put the body under too much strain. At times like these, choose gentle stretching or walking instead and respect the repair and recovery that your body requires.

arrow-3Connect

Consider your life as a barrister. You may have frequent long commutes to court and find that being able to get involved in social interaction with colleagues is difficult because you don’t live locally. Long working hours are inevitable in our profession, reducing time available with family and friends. Perhaps you live in the city for part of the week and return home at weekends. Variable working patterns and working long into the night preparing for court, make it hard to commit to social engagements.

Human beings are social creatures and we instinctively know that we need good quality relationships to lead a fulfilled life. Studies on the over 50’s from the University of Chicago demonstrated that loneliness can be twice as unhealthy for us as obesity. Younger people (18 -34 years) are experiencing loneliness more than ever and this is more likely to result in depression than in older subjects. The Mental Health Foundation found that 42% of us have felt depressed as a result of loneliness.

Research tells us that loneliness is harmful due to five main reasons:

  1. We find it harder to regulate our behaviour when we are lonely, so we may drink more alcohol, take less exercise and eat unhealthily. These unhealthy lifestyle choices increase our risk of preventable conditions
  2. Middle-aged people report more exposure to stress due to loneliness and therefore its damaging effects
  3. We withdraw from people when we feel lonely and this reduces the opportunity for emotional support
  4. Lonely people experience more trouble sleeping; Sleep deprivation comes with many ill-effects, not least an inability to focus and low energy
  5. Cardiovascular and immune problems are increased in lonely people

Scientists know that oxytocin, the hormone responsible for affiliation protects us from cardiac ill-health. This hormone is released when we have a physical presence with people we care about, which means that we cannot solely rely on catching up with family and loved ones via social media and emails.

arrow-4Learn

Being curious and continually learning throughout life have also been shown to drive personal wellbeing measures including life satisfaction scores, optimism and efficacy.

Learning has many benefits including raising self-esteem, confidence and building a sense of purpose. Professor Paul Dolan, a behavioural scientist at the London School of Economics has found that happiness is driven by having a sense of meaning or purpose in our lives, balanced with enjoyment of one off, hedonistic pursuits.

Curiosity is a phenomenon that we see in children but outside our job roles, we may find that as adults our lives have become more one dimensional. Positive psychology (the scientific study of what makes us flourish and thrive) demonstrates that being curious broadens our minds to more possibility in life. This has a direct correlation on our ability to cultivate more positive emotion.

arrow-5Give

Instinctively it feels good to give to others. We now know that reciprocity also drives long term self-reported wellbeing. Professor Sonia Lyubomirsky of the University of California demonstrated that carrying out one simple act of kindness per week over a six-week period increased wellbeing in participants when compared to a group that committed no acts of kindness.

Giving may look like a formal volunteering exercise or perhaps pro-bono legal opportunity or it could be subtler that this. Small actions can have just as deep an impact on wellbeing as the more obvious ones.

Self help

Asking for help is never easy. The world of The Bar is a fiercely independent and proud one. Expectations of quality and service are high. However, you’ll provide the best service to your clients when you are at your healthiest and when life and work are in balance. If you feel the balance slipping and stress becoming a normal part of your life, you can take action to bring things back on course.

Knowing your own warning signs allows you to deploy strategies which can help manage your psychological wellbeing in the short and long term. In doing so, you will increase your resilience and greatly reduce the chance of becoming unwell.

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  • Access free support including a confidential counselling telephone service from www.lawcare.org.uk
  • Access our additional resources to provide further reading on areas of relevance
  • Approach a senior colleague at chambers, or your employer if you are an employed barrister

Read some of the personal stories offered by barristers who have suffered with mental health issues.

Support

There are a range of organisations which can help with specific issues. Click here for some advice on seeking help and for a list of organisations and their contact details.

I’m a barrister
I’m a clerk / member of staff

The information and resource packs on this website are designed to help you and your colleagues to work as a community for better wellbeing and professional resilience. If you want to provide feedback on these resources, or to get involved in promoting wellbeing please get in touch.


Get in touch Policy & practice

It can be difficult to make a living from law and it can be pressurised and demanding. Competition and an adversarial approach to everything can make collegiate relationships difficult. This website aims to provide you with the knowledge to manage these stressors, make emotionally informed, wise professional decisions and thrive in your chosen profession.

A simple expression that sums up wellbeing is ‘travelling well’

1 in 6 barristers feels in low spirits most of the time