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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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News / Events: Support

The Times They Are a-Changin’?

Real talk. It jolted me when one of my children asked, “What is most important; sleep, work or playtime?” I had to ask myself whether this was a hint that I was neglecting those close to me? That I had succumbed to the insidious grasp of the demands of life at the Bar? Those pressures […]

Don’t bother counting sheep: how to send a barrister to sleep

Many of us are used to getting less than the optimal amount of sleep, arising from late-night working or early starts to far-flung courts. It’s part of the job, isn’t it? Some people can work until 2am with relish. Some choose to start again at 5am. No one likes it. It doesn’t happen all the […]

Self injury awareness

[Article by Health Assured] Self-Injury Awareness Day is a global event held on 1st March every year – the aim is to reach out to those who self-injury, and educate others. Awareness will lead to understanding and empathy for those who self-injure, as well as reducing the number of those feeling alone and suffering in silence. […]

Addictions at the Bar – when a dry January is not enough

I am a barrister.  I am also a recovering alcoholic. For the first few years at the Bar my behaviour around drinking did not seem that different from many of my peers. There was the odd night of when I embarrassed myself through drunken behaviour or failed to make it into chambers the next day. […]

Wellbeing at the Bar: Our New Chair 2019

Plans for Wellbeing at the Bar in 2019 In 2019 I am chairing the Bar Council’s Wellbeing at the Bar (‘WATB’) Working Group. It would be impossible to start my time as chair in any way other than by paying tribute to the outgoing chair, and indeed our only chair to date, Rachel Spearing. Rachel […]

Learning to support yourself and others (Nina Caplin)

Learning to support yourself and others Since the inception of the Wellbeing at the Bar initiative in 2015, I have been greatly impressed at how quickly the issue of wellbeing has been embraced by the profession and those who work with barristers. In 2015 the Bar Council’s wellbeing survey indicated that 2 out of 3 […]

Wellbeing at the Bar Blog: Rachel Crasnow KC

A new kind of first aid: mental health first aid Determined, energetic and purposeful high achievers can be the most vulnerable to mental health issues because they push themselves so hard. Barristers, who often work alone, often with long commutes to courts, their self-employed status removing them from any managerial oversight, are particularly susceptible to […]

Wellbeing at the Bar Blog: Helen Randall

Wellbeing from the start Speaking to mini-pupils and conducting interviews for pupillage recently, it has struck me how unwilling anyone wishing to join the profession is to acknowledge the need for a work/life balance. I entirely understand the dilemma, and am sure I was guilty of it too. They want to join a profession with […]

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