This book addresses the many different features of practice in clinical contexts and helps students reflect critically on their experiences. Students learn from many sources including clients, supervisors, communities, and classrooms in clinical programs. Supervisors are employed by legal clinics, usually lawyers, under whose license student’s practice. Supervisors can provide students with connections between theory, substantive knowledge, and practice experience. Clinic supervisors can also act as mentors, supporting students through the process of becoming lawyers.
Supervisors should be aware of student self-care and wellness. Supervisors should also be aware of compassion fatigue, a set of physical, emotional, and psychological symptoms caused by the stress of helping others in a professional capacity. For students and supervisors, it can be difficult to distinguish legitimate critique from negative assumptions, with the latter sometimes being the result of vicarious trauma. Both students and supervisors run the risk of suffering from vicarious trauma when interacting with clients who deal with traumatic personal experiences. The lack of institutional support is a key reason for the risk of compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout in the legal profession. Supervisors who assess students’ well-being and provide opportunities to debrief will mitigate these risks in students.
Sarah Buhler, Sarah Marsden & Gemma Smyth, Clinical Law: Practice, Theory, and Social Justice Advocacy (Toronto: Edmond Montgomery, 2016) ch 3.
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