Specialist Vicarious Trauma Training for Legal Teams
Training to Change delivers specialist vicarious trauma training for barristers chambers, law firms and legal teams working with traumatic and emotionally demanding material.
Organisations and programmes
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An embedded vicarious trauma programme with Capsticks LLP, now in its fourth year
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Training delivered for Cloisters Chambers
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Ongoing work with organisations operating in safeguarding, prevention and other emotionally demanding environments
Why organisations commission this training
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Increasing pressure on staff working with traumatic material
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Burnout, emotional exhaustion and disengagement
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Difficulty switching off from distressing casework
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Professionals handling traumatic material in relative isolation
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Cumulative emotional impact within safeguarding teams
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Challenges supporting psychologically safe workplaces
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Concerns around retention and sustainable practice
Who benefits most from this training
Designed for legal professionals working across family law, criminal law, Court of Protection, child protection, safeguarding, public law, immigration and asylum, and coronial work.
Legal professionals working in these areas routinely deal with distressing material in their day-to-day work.
Repeated contact with witness statements, case files, safeguarding concerns and traumatic accounts can, over time, have a profound emotional and psychological impact.
Much of this material is reviewed alone and under pressure, often without the informal day-to-day support structures that previously existed more naturally within workplaces, teams and chambers.
The training equips individuals and teams with practical ways of recognising, managing and responding to the emotional impact of repeated exposure to trauma.
Training can include
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Full chambers or firm-wide sessions
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Smaller team workshops
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Leadership and supervision training
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Safeguarding and frontline teams
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Conference or away-day sessions
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Follow-up sessions and longer-term support programmes
Sessions are built around the realities of legal practice, giving teams clear frameworks and approaches they can apply in demanding working environments.
Dawn Velody
Trainer and facilitator specialising in vicarious trauma, safeguarding, domestic abuse and emotional resilience in high-pressure professional environments.
Her work includes training for barristers chambers, law firms, charities and organisations whose staff regularly deal with trauma, distress and emotionally demanding material.
Alongside her work in legal and safeguarding environments, her background includes senior roles with Mind and Tender, the domestic abuse prevention charity, as well as wider work connected to national wellbeing and prevention initiatives.
Her sessions are practical, direct and grounded in the realities of professional life — with a strong focus on the cumulative impact of emotionally demanding work, particularly in environments where difficult material is often dealt with in relative isolation.
Her approach combines professional insight with warmth, clarity and an understanding of the pressures faced by people working close to trauma and distress.
“Dawn is a superb trainer and facilitator and has delivered several vicarious trauma training sessions across several legal teams at our firm, and everything about the training has been consistently excellent - the carefully curated content, the pace, the level of interactivity, and above all, Dawn’s warm, engaging, and authentic style.
Dawn worked with us to create a comprehensive delivery plan for the training, which included clear communication about the training’s aims and objectives, senior level support, a pre-training survey, and a follow up report and toolkit.
I would 100% recommend Dawn to any organisation where its employees regularly work with vulnerable individuals, and any organisations looking to strengthen their commitment to employee wellbeing.”
Michelle Fox Head of Inclusion and Engagement, Capsticks LLP