*/
Over the years, I’ve supported barristers facing caseloads that carry not just intellectual or strategic weight, but emotional weight, too – complex trials, disturbing evidence, the human cost of injustice. Some call the helpline exhausted or in despair, others are emotionally numb. Most are brilliant at the job. All are carrying more than they realise.
The Bar Council’s wellbeing research paints a clear picture: stress, burnout and emotional exhaustion are widespread across the profession. A 2021 report* found that one in three barristers was feeling emotionally drained. Many were experiencing low mood, poor sleep, high levels of perfectionism (which directly correlates with low levels of wellbeing) and the cumulative impact of repeated exposure to trauma – particularly in criminal, family, and immigration work.
Much is being done. The Inns of Court College of Advocacy, for example, prioritises wellbeing from the start, including it in induction week lectures. Elsewhere, Circuits and individual chambers are increasingly encouraging barristers to maintain their good emotional health. The North Eastern Circuit has responded to the needs of Circuit members and have developed a progressive wellbeing strategy, including access for one-to-one support if necessary via a helpline available to all pupils and barristers.
What follows is a distillation of what I’ve seen and heard, time and again, from barristers navigating traumatic material while trying to remain effective, professional – and human – in a system that is increasingly expecting superhuman levels of performance.
Whatever the presenting issue, these five themes come up time and again. So here I suggest five strategies that barristers can try to help tackle these issues. While deceptively simple they can be challenging to implement. None are magic fixes but, over time, they help people feel more present, more resilient and more human while doing demanding, emotionally loaded work.
Constant alerts, emails, messages, last-minute instructions – your phone may be your work-lifeline and your recreational go-to activity but if you’re never off, your system never winds down. Brains and nervous systems need rest.
Try this: Create two 30-minute ‘tech-free’ windows a day – first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Step away from the scroll and leave your phone outside the bedroom. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your brain and body settles.
If you’re dealing with high levels of stressors and potentially traumatic material during the day, your brain needs downtime at night to process it. You may think you are able to manage on four or five hours a night. You are wrong. Lack of sleep affects memory, mood, and your ability to emotionally regulate – none of which helps you in court.
Try this: No caffeine after lunchtime. Build a consistent bed and wake time into your routine. Before bed: low lighting, warm bath or shower, be offline. Stop working earlier than feels comfortable. Your next day will thank you for it.
When work and home blur, your nervous system never quite gets the memo that it’s off duty and it’s a law of diminishing returns. You are less effective and efficient. When barristers keep working during home-time activities, their bodies stay in courtroom mode – even in bed. Creating a clear boundary between work and rest isn’t indulgent, it is essential for sustainable practice.
Try this: Create an end-of-day ritual. Put away your work kit or physically leave your workspace. Separate work emails and groups on your phone and set them to ‘do not disturb’ outside work hours. Use a small ritual – like a walk round the block – to signal the shift. And no checking emails over dinner! Yes, I know you might log back on later – but give that evening work a clear time limit and repeat the ritual when you’re done: put the laptop away, shut it down, let the day go.
Isolation is common in the Bar. Increased remote working, lone drives, solo hotel rooms, keeping distressing material confidential – it all adds up. Humans need connection; research has shown that isolation is the health equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.** Seriously. I know connection to be one of the best antidotes to overwhelm.
Try this: Make space for one every day, non-work contact or conversation. Phone a friend. If in a relationship, have a five-minute check in with your partner. Acknowledge the person at the café who remembers your order. Go into chambers in person more and encourage others to do the same – maybe organise a wellbeing lunch! These small interactions are grounding and protective.
People cope best with stressors and trauma when they’re able to stay connected to something larger. Call it perspective, meaning, or just a sense that life is bigger than the court list. When people reconnect with what nourishes them – whether that’s nature, faith, creativity, or acts of service – they recover their sense of self.
Try this: Keep a small note somewhere – on your desk, in your diary – where you record moments of ‘awe’. The sky at night, an uplifting experince, a connection with something beautiful, a win that meant something. Noticing these things keeps you connected to something bigger than yourself and the job.
Search online for a list of values. Circle those that resonate, then narrow them down to your top five. In your notebook, note moments in your week when you’ve lived one or more of them.
This job is cerebral, but your body is what carries you through it. What you choose to eat, drink, absorb, listen to, scroll through, who you spend your time with and doing what gives you a sense of purpose, it all becomes the material you build your day from.
You don’t need to overhaul your life. But do ask: is what I’m taking in helping me do the work I care about and live a life where I am thriving, in a way I can sustain?
No-one goes to their deathbed wishing they’d spent more time in court. The work matters – but so do you. And if you want to keep doing it, looking after yourself isn’t indulgent. It’s strategy.
* The Bar Council’s Working Lives 2021 wellbeing analysis can be read here. Data published in 2023 showed some improvements compared to 2021 in terms of barrister psychological wellbeing, workload management and supportive work environment.
** A study published in 2010 explored social relationships and mortality rates combining the data from 148 studies on the topic – Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med 7(7): e1000316.
See also ‘The lost art of socialising at the Bar’, Baldip Singh, Counsel, August 2025; North Eastern Circuit wellbeing helpline; Wellbeingatthebar.org.uk - for confidential help, self-employed barristers, members of the IBC or LPMA can call 0800 169 2040.
LawCare: Call: 0800 279 6888 (Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm except bank holidays) or visit www.lawcare.org.uk.
The Samaritans can be contacted 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on tel: 116 123, www.samaritans.org or email: jo@samaritans.org.
International helplines can be found at: befrienders.org
Wendy Showell Nicholas is a BACP accredited psychotherapist, supervising ISW, organisational change consultant and national expert on vicarious trauma and the wellbeing of professionals working with psychologically harmful material. She works with barristers, clerks, judges and frontline professionals across law, health, education, and social care. Wendy co-produced the Inns of Court College of Advocacy’s trauma-informed advocacy training and is a published author and speaker on wellbeing and resilience.
Over the years, I’ve supported barristers facing caseloads that carry not just intellectual or strategic weight, but emotional weight, too – complex trials, disturbing evidence, the human cost of injustice. Some call the helpline exhausted or in despair, others are emotionally numb. Most are brilliant at the job. All are carrying more than they realise.
The Bar Council’s wellbeing research paints a clear picture: stress, burnout and emotional exhaustion are widespread across the profession. A 2021 report* found that one in three barristers was feeling emotionally drained. Many were experiencing low mood, poor sleep, high levels of perfectionism (which directly correlates with low levels of wellbeing) and the cumulative impact of repeated exposure to trauma – particularly in criminal, family, and immigration work.
Much is being done. The Inns of Court College of Advocacy, for example, prioritises wellbeing from the start, including it in induction week lectures. Elsewhere, Circuits and individual chambers are increasingly encouraging barristers to maintain their good emotional health. The North Eastern Circuit has responded to the needs of Circuit members and have developed a progressive wellbeing strategy, including access for one-to-one support if necessary via a helpline available to all pupils and barristers.
What follows is a distillation of what I’ve seen and heard, time and again, from barristers navigating traumatic material while trying to remain effective, professional – and human – in a system that is increasingly expecting superhuman levels of performance.
Whatever the presenting issue, these five themes come up time and again. So here I suggest five strategies that barristers can try to help tackle these issues. While deceptively simple they can be challenging to implement. None are magic fixes but, over time, they help people feel more present, more resilient and more human while doing demanding, emotionally loaded work.
Constant alerts, emails, messages, last-minute instructions – your phone may be your work-lifeline and your recreational go-to activity but if you’re never off, your system never winds down. Brains and nervous systems need rest.
Try this: Create two 30-minute ‘tech-free’ windows a day – first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Step away from the scroll and leave your phone outside the bedroom. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your brain and body settles.
If you’re dealing with high levels of stressors and potentially traumatic material during the day, your brain needs downtime at night to process it. You may think you are able to manage on four or five hours a night. You are wrong. Lack of sleep affects memory, mood, and your ability to emotionally regulate – none of which helps you in court.
Try this: No caffeine after lunchtime. Build a consistent bed and wake time into your routine. Before bed: low lighting, warm bath or shower, be offline. Stop working earlier than feels comfortable. Your next day will thank you for it.
When work and home blur, your nervous system never quite gets the memo that it’s off duty and it’s a law of diminishing returns. You are less effective and efficient. When barristers keep working during home-time activities, their bodies stay in courtroom mode – even in bed. Creating a clear boundary between work and rest isn’t indulgent, it is essential for sustainable practice.
Try this: Create an end-of-day ritual. Put away your work kit or physically leave your workspace. Separate work emails and groups on your phone and set them to ‘do not disturb’ outside work hours. Use a small ritual – like a walk round the block – to signal the shift. And no checking emails over dinner! Yes, I know you might log back on later – but give that evening work a clear time limit and repeat the ritual when you’re done: put the laptop away, shut it down, let the day go.
Isolation is common in the Bar. Increased remote working, lone drives, solo hotel rooms, keeping distressing material confidential – it all adds up. Humans need connection; research has shown that isolation is the health equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.** Seriously. I know connection to be one of the best antidotes to overwhelm.
Try this: Make space for one every day, non-work contact or conversation. Phone a friend. If in a relationship, have a five-minute check in with your partner. Acknowledge the person at the café who remembers your order. Go into chambers in person more and encourage others to do the same – maybe organise a wellbeing lunch! These small interactions are grounding and protective.
People cope best with stressors and trauma when they’re able to stay connected to something larger. Call it perspective, meaning, or just a sense that life is bigger than the court list. When people reconnect with what nourishes them – whether that’s nature, faith, creativity, or acts of service – they recover their sense of self.
Try this: Keep a small note somewhere – on your desk, in your diary – where you record moments of ‘awe’. The sky at night, an uplifting experince, a connection with something beautiful, a win that meant something. Noticing these things keeps you connected to something bigger than yourself and the job.
Search online for a list of values. Circle those that resonate, then narrow them down to your top five. In your notebook, note moments in your week when you’ve lived one or more of them.
This job is cerebral, but your body is what carries you through it. What you choose to eat, drink, absorb, listen to, scroll through, who you spend your time with and doing what gives you a sense of purpose, it all becomes the material you build your day from.
You don’t need to overhaul your life. But do ask: is what I’m taking in helping me do the work I care about and live a life where I am thriving, in a way I can sustain?
No-one goes to their deathbed wishing they’d spent more time in court. The work matters – but so do you. And if you want to keep doing it, looking after yourself isn’t indulgent. It’s strategy.
* The Bar Council’s Working Lives 2021 wellbeing analysis can be read here. Data published in 2023 showed some improvements compared to 2021 in terms of barrister psychological wellbeing, workload management and supportive work environment.
** A study published in 2010 explored social relationships and mortality rates combining the data from 148 studies on the topic – Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med 7(7): e1000316.
See also ‘The lost art of socialising at the Bar’, Baldip Singh, Counsel, August 2025; North Eastern Circuit wellbeing helpline; Wellbeingatthebar.org.uk - for confidential help, self-employed barristers, members of the IBC or LPMA can call 0800 169 2040.
LawCare: Call: 0800 279 6888 (Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm except bank holidays) or visit www.lawcare.org.uk.
The Samaritans can be contacted 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on tel: 116 123, www.samaritans.org or email: jo@samaritans.org.
International helplines can be found at: befrienders.org
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