Wellness: How to Identify and Get Help Managing Stress and Anxiety (Online Seminar)

A pre-recorded streaming video replay of the November 2019 webcast, Wellness: How to Identify and Get Help Managing Stress and Anxiety.

In 2020, Virginia lawyers, judges, and law students may take up to two pre-defined wellness courses through the Virginia Law Foundation/Virginia CLE free of charge. These courses have been developed in response to the efforts of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Virginia Lawyers’ Wellness Initiative. Learn more.

• Lawyers outpace the general population in rates of suicide, depression, alcoholism, substance abuse, and chronic stress. Evidence suggests that this is not a coincidence, but rather the result of the unique combination of occupational hazards that lawyers face throughout their careers.
• Learn to identify those occupational risks that cannot be mitigated while taking action to manage or eliminate those that can.
• Learn how to identify the Anxiety-Stress-Cortisol Loop
• Learn to Identify the Symptoms of Stress and Burnout
• Learn from the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) how anxiety is diagnosed clinically
• Identify practical steps lawyers can take to mitigate the risks associated with the practice of law
• An introduction to wellness issues in the legal profession and factors that influence stress and anxiety in the practice of law
• A discussion of how lawyers’ bias against mental health disorders can retard diagnosis and treatment
• An explanation of what happens physically to stressed-out attorneys
• A description of the DSMV and how anxiety is diagnosed clinically
• Strategies to address occupational risks and stressors, both at the individual and law firm levels, in order to maximize long-term attorney health, wellness, productivity, and retention.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Barbara Mardigian, LPC, Deputy Clinical Director, Virginia Judges & Lawyers Assistance Program / Richmond

Barbara Mardigian is a Licensed Professional Counselor who joined Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program as the Deputy Clinical Director in 2019. She was formerly the Executive Director of Family Counseling Center for Recovery, Radford office and has worked in the field of addiction since 1997. Prior to her role as the Executive Director she worked as a clinical director at FCCR and has experience working in residential treatment with professionals at The Farley Center from 2010-2016, as well as with adolescents in both residential and outpatient settings.  

Barbara has been supervising individuals working towards their LPC and CSAC counselors in the state of Virginia since 2013. Barbara has presented on a variety of issues including domestic violence and addiction, trauma and addiction, Family and addiction and Ethics, at venues including VCU family support group, The State of Virginia domestic violence division and the VAMARP conference 2018. Barbara has her graduate degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and undergraduate from Ferrum College. She has been licensed since 2004.