On May 15, 2025, Berman & Simmons led Sex Abuse Survivors Practice Group 2025: Trauma-Informed Training. The day-long training session centered on how lawyers can take a trauma-informed approach to legal advocacy.
This is an important part of our practice of law, especially when working with survivors of sexual abuse and other forms of trauma.
About the 2025 Trauma-Informed Training Session
The 2025 practice group covered a number of topics, including the definition and long-term effects of sexual abuse and trauma, how to prevent re-traumitization of survivors during initial meetings, the risk of secondary trauma in the workplace, and how to identify and manage secondary trauma in yourself and among colleagues.
The day-long event concluded with a discussion panel and Q&A session, allowing attendees to interact with our team and receive more insight on how legal professionals can best assist trauma survivors.
What Is Trauma-Informed Legal Advocacy?
Trauma-informed legal advocacy is a conscious, client-oriented approach to practicing law.
Trauma-informed training ensures that attorneys are mindful of the ways trauma survivors interact with the world around them. The training also offers suggestions to lawyers on how to approach interactions in ways that reduce the risk of re-traumatization.
Trauma-informed legal advocacy helps strengthen client relations, improve communication, and build trust. This training also minimizes the risk of attorneys experiencing vicarious or secondary trauma when they work on difficult cases.
Examples of Our Trauma-Informed Approach to Client Advocacy
- We Are Mindful of Our Client’s Time and Privacy – It takes a lot of courage to talk about trauma. That is why our attorneys provide clients with extra assurances of confidentiality and are respectful of a client taking the time they need to speak about what they experienced.
- We Acknowledge That Our Client Brought Documents – We know that many people who have survived trauma find it easier to focus when they have a chance to share any documents they’ve brought with them. We make sure to acknowledge this at the beginning.
- We Are Careful of How We Phrase Questions to Clients – Improperly phrasing a question could subtly put an onus on the survivor of a traumatic event. We often say to clients, “I know this may be difficult to talk about, but can you tell me what happened?” so we do not undermine the validity of their lived experience.
- We Mirror the Language That Our Clients Use – We actively listen to clients as they share their experiences, and we make sure to use the language they use when discussing what happened. Our team makes sure to use phrases clients are comfortable using themselves.
- We Are Grateful That Clients Entrust Us with Their Information – At the conclusion of each conversation, we thank our clients for entrusting us with the information that was shared. We also leave the door open so they can contact us if they remember anything else.
- We Set Boundaries on Attorney-Client Communication – Our attorneys take great care advocating for and communicating with clients who’ve experienced sexual abuse, but we are not mental health professionals. When a client needs to discuss the lasting emotional effects of the trauma they’ve experienced, it’s incumbent upon our team to refer them to a trauma-informed mental health professional so our client can receive the care they need.
Trauma-Informed Training Is Our Ethical Obligation to Survivors
At Berman & Simmons, trauma-informed legal advocacy is not a “best practice” but rather an ethical obligation to sexual abuse survivors throughout Maine and all of New England.
We hope training sessions like these help our legal colleagues approach difficult cases with greater compassion and understanding. We also hope that these sessions remind our team of the importance of sensitive and mindful counsel whenever a survivor comes forward to share what happened.