About
The trauma-informed law project is represented by a multicolored tree for three reasons...
I grew up near the ocean in British Columbia, and somehow always associated trees with an inner sense of peace. Especially the Cypress tree which I’ve read can have multiple meanings including as a symbol of peace, immortality, growth or mourning.
When I think of trauma, I often think of a person or plant caught in crosswinds. There is a movie about this “crosswinds sensation” called
”Risstuules” (or “In the Crosswinds”).https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2018/04/27/arresting-trauma-martti-heldes-in-the-crosswinds-2014/
A trauma expert I greatly respect, Vamik Volkan, speaks about the large group psychology of conflict resolution in terms of a tree symbol. You can read about his “tree model” here:
The trauma-informed law project is inspired by the following...
- comments from many people involved in or affected by the legal system indicating that ineffective strategies to deal with trauma in the context of a conflict or case can act as a barrier to access to justice, or even access to legal services
- the observation that the legal conflicts and cases characterized by high levels of trauma or violence tend to have lower rates of satisfactory or meaningful resolution
- the current lack of resources for both clients and legal professionals regarding best practices for avoiding retraumatization during the legal process
- the need for more widespread awareness of trauma-informed practices in the legal community in order to foster trauma-informed lawyer-client relationships
- the current lack of resources for legal professionals at risk of secondary trauma or vicarious trauma
- the need to further study whether, and to what extent, the legal process and legal system has the potential to traumatize or retraumatize legal system stakeholders
- studies regarding the recurring nature of cycles of violence and trauma, such as this study by the World Health Organization:
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/98783/E90619.pdf
- the ACEs study results regarding the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACE): https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/about.html
- the growth of trauma-informed practices in other areas (schools, hospitals, medical profession, etc.)
- the observation that the use of restorative justice and therapeutic justice appears to have been limited to discrete areas of the law
- the prevalence of chronic or everyday trauma among legal professionals in the form of stress, burnout and overwhelm
- the tendency of changes in the common law to develop in a piecemeal fashion
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”