October 4 – 8 is Law Student Mental Health Awareness Week. You, the law student, are not alone in struggles with mental health. Studies show that lawyers have higher rates of alcoholism, divorce, and even suicide than the general population. Studies also suggest that prospective law students are similar to other Americans before their first day of school, but then the incidence of these problems skyrockets. Below are resources to help with law student mental health the stresses of law school. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength.
University of Cincinnati Campus Resources to Help
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers accessible, student centered, inclusive, and effective mental health services to UC students. They offer 24/7 access to students who are in need of immediate support through their crisis services. 24 Hour Crisis Helpline: 513-556-0648
University Health Services is your campus health and wellness resource. They are an outpatient facility offering comprehensive clinical services to the student population. All students enrolled at the university are eligible to use UHS.
The Student Wellness Center empowers students to make informed decisions regarding their health and wellness by providing evidence-based education, inclusive resources, and non-judgmental support. They offer an extensive collection of resources and information about various health and wellness topics.
The Bearcats Recovery Community is a program designed to support UC students in or seeking recovery from alcohol, drugs and other addictions. The BRC and its programs allow students to have an authentic college experience at UC while maintaining their recovery.
The Bearcats Support Network is a community of students that fundamentally work to destigmatize mental health while holistically working to create a network that is supportive, loving, and inclusive through peer-to-peer support groups and biweekly social events.
The CARE Team responds to reports about students experiencing difficulties or whose behavior is raising concerns within the University community. The team’s responsibilities include gathering and sharing information, discerning concerns about a student within a setting or across multiple settings, and managing situations that encompass a variety of issues. The committee is charged to devise a coordinated plan for assessment, intervention, and management of the concerns for the students well-being and that of the University community.
Sky@UC empowers tomorrow’s leaders with tools to build confidence, clarity of mind, social connection, and resilience. Their primary goal is to promote mental wellness by introducing yoga and meditation as a healthier way to manage stress. They aim to empower the students to develop and maintain a relaxed, stress-free mind along with an energetic, healthy body so that we all achieve more and better as an individual and as a community. SKY@UC offers free weekly yoga and meditation sessions. They also plan and execute community service projects, which hone leadership skills and make a difference in our society. Their flagship program is the ‘Campus Happiness Retreat’, wherein participants learn SKY Meditation (Sudarshan Kriya), an effective breath-based rejuvenating technique which is scientifically validated to increase mental focus and awareness, relieve anxiety and depression, and improve wellness.
Selected Apps and Online Tools to Help
Therapy Assistance Online (TOA)
TAO is an interactive, web-based self-help program that provides online and mobile tools to help you overcome the day to day challenges around stessors like anxiety, depression, or other concerns.
SAM App
SAM is a free app to help you understand and manage anxiety. The app has been developed in collaboration with a research team from UWE, Bristol.
MindShift App
MindShift™ CBT uses scientifically proven strategies based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help you learn to relax and be mindful, develop more effective ways of thinking, and use active steps to take charge of your anxiety. This app is free.
PTSD Coach
PTSD Coach was designed for those who have, or may have, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This free app provides you with education about PTSD, information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD.
Insight Timer
This free app offers guided meditations for sleep, anxiety, and stress.
Liberate
Liberate is a free meditation app by and for the Black & African Diaspora. Meditation categories include ancestors, love, self worth, gratitude, microaggressions, mindfulness, and more.
Take a Break
Take a Break is a free app from Meditation Oasis that provides a choice of a 7-minute or a 15-minute guided meditation break to help keep you fresh and centered during your work day. You can choose to listen to the meditation in voice-only format, or with music or nature sounds in the background.
Selected UC Law Library Books
Check out some of the materials in our collection of wellness resources!
The Anxious Lawyer by Jeena Cho & Karen Gifford
Call Number: Law stacks KF298 .C47 2016
The Anxious Lawyer is a straightforward introduction to meditation and mindfulness for those engaged in the practice of law. Readers will be guided through an eight week program, the aim of which is to assist in establishing an ongoing meditation practice. The book will: -Provide an overview of the history of meditation and the scientific evidence of its benefits -Introduce the reader to simple meditation techniques -Offer concrete guidance for establishing meditation practice
Finding the Midline: How Yoga Helps a Trial Lawyer Make Friends and Connect to Spirit by Bill Dorigan & Judyth Hill
Call Number: Law stacks KF310.A43 D67 2013
What’s a midline? Why do I want to find one? And, by the way, I’ve been looking for spirit forever : where do I look? — Western behavioral science : meet yoga — What does spirit look like? — A road map of the outer world : the Tattvas — Connecting the outer world to the inner world — The inner body — It takes practice : Pantajali’s yoga sutras
How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School by Kathryne M. Young
Call Number: Law Stacks KF287 .Y68 2018
Each year, over 40,000 new students enter America’s law schools. Each new crop experiences startlingly high rates of depression, anxiety, fatigue, and dissatisfaction. Kathryne M. Young was one of those disgruntled law students. After finishing law school (and a PhD), she set out to learn more about the law school experience and how to improve it for future students. Young conducted one of the most ambitious studies of law students ever undertaken, charting the experiences of over 1000 law students from over 100 different law schools, along with hundreds of alumni, dropouts, law professors, and more. How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School is smart, compelling, and highly readable. Combining her own observations and experiences with the results of her study and the latest sociological research on law schools, Young offers a very different take from previous books about law school survival. Instead of assuming her readers should all aspire to law-review-and-big-firm notions of success, Young teaches students how to approach law school on their own terms: how to tune out the drumbeat of oppressive expectations and conventional wisdom to create a new breed of law school experience altogether. Young provides readers with practical tools for finding focus, happiness, and a sense of purpose while facing the seemingly endless onslaught of problems law school presents daily. This book is an indispensable companion for today’s law students, prospective law students, and anyone who cares about making law students’ lives better. Bursting with warmth, realism, and a touch of firebrand wit, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School equips law students with much-needed wisdom for thriving during those three crucial years.
Lawyering from the Inside Out by Nathalie Martin
Call Number: Available as an E-book & Law Stacks KF300 .M37 2018
Law is a varied, powerful, and highly rewarding profession. Studies show, however, that lawyers have higher rates of alcoholism, divorce, and even suicide than the general population. Stress creates these poor outcomes, including the stress of dealing with other people’s problems all day, the stress of spending excessive amounts of time at work, and the stress of being disconnected to what is most meaningful in life. Through mindfulness and emotional intelligence training, lawyers can improve focus, get more work done in less time, improve their interpersonal skills, and seek and find work that will make their lives more meaningful. This book is designed to help law students and lawyers of all experience levels find a sustainable and meaningful life in the field of law. This book includes journaling and other interactive exercises that can help lawyers find peace, focus, meaning, and happiness over a lifetime of practicing law.
Lawyers Anger and Anxiety by Rebecca Nerison
Call Number: Law stacks KF300 .N46 2010
The book first examines how anger and anxiety are related and the symptoms and costs associated with them. You’ll also find advice on seeking happiness through all the stages of your career, and discover valuable tips for staying satisfactorily employed during the most stressful of times. There’s also help for those living with a stressed-out lawyer, both at home or at the office.
Mindfulness for Law Students by Scott Rogers
Call Number: Law Stacks KF287 .R64 2009
Mindfulness for Law Students is specifically designed to introduce law students to fundamental contemplative practices as well as the cutting-edge research that shows how incorporating mindfulness techniques can alter the physical structure and function of the brain to reflect decreased levels of stress, increased levels of productivity and improved mental health. This book is based on the Jurisight(R) program – which uses legal terms and concepts to teach lawyers what they need to know about mindfulness and neuroscience to lead more balanced and effective lives – and written with input from law students, law professors and recent law school graduates to ensure that the lessons are accessible to law students and can be easily integrated into their busy schedules.
Yoga for Lawyers by Nathalie Martin; Hallie Neuman Love; Hallie Neuman Love
Call Number: Law Stacks KF310.A43 L68 2014
Lawyers are twice as likely to be alcoholics than the general population, and three times more likely to suffer a heart attack. Yoga for Lawyers is here to help Written by lawyers, for lawyers, this is a short, user-friendly yoga book focused on effective ways to de-stress every day, throughout the day, in very little time. The featured meditative yoga techniques and safe therapeutic yoga stretches are medically proven to be healthy ways to relieve stress.