Roundup: Wellness Toolkit
As noted by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, “legal professionals are at higher risk of experiencing stress, anxiety, depression and substance use than are other professionals”. We also know that many claims result from wellness issues. As such, CLIA recognizes the importance of promoting wellness for the profession.
To help, in 2025 CLIA compiled numerous wellness resources into an Online Wellness Toolkit. The focus of the Toolkit is based on the findings of the National Study on the Health and Wellness Determinants of Legal Professionals in Canada prepared by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the Canadian Bar Association and the Université de Sherbrooke.
Our online Wellness Toolkit houses resources to assist you in detecting warning signs in yourself and others, provide more information for those in higher-risk groups, and tools to deal with risks specific to the legal profession.
See our posts below for more information:
Check out this post for an overview of the topics and subtopics included. Specifically, a focus on the Detecting Warning Signs/Self Assessment topic.
One category of the Wellness Toolkit is ‘Barriers to Seeking Help’. As noted by Bena Stock in one of the resources shared:
In a profession where confidence and competence are paramount, the fear of asking for help can be a crippling secret shame for many lawyers. The relentless pressure to perform, coupled with a culture that often equates seeking assistance with weakness, creates a silent struggle that can negatively impact your practice and well-being.
See the Wellness Toolkit for resources to assist with reducing stigma and asking for help
One category of the Wellness Toolkit is Developing Skills to Preserve Health. This includes resources by subcategory:
Adopting Healthy Lifestyle
Assertiveness/Setting Boundaries
Emotional Intelligence
Psychological Detachment
Resilience
See this post for specific resource under Assertiveness/Setting Boundaries.
This post focuses on a high-risk group identified in the Study: Retirees and Seniors. As the LAWPRO article, Retirement, Identity, and Mental Health: It’s an Adjustment, notes:
Lawyers often pay lip service to looking forward to retirement. However, when pressed on the subject, many admit that their true feelings are mixed.
Those who equivocate may have good reason: for many professionals, the adjustment to retirement can be psychologically challenging. A 2013 study¹ showed that retirement increased the risk of clinical depression in British men by 40 per cent.
Related research has shown that professionals, and especially male professionals, draw much of their sense of personal identity from their work. When work ends, retirees can struggle with a loss of a sense of self.
Lawyers may feel that, in retirement, their views are no longer relevant; or even that their lives are suddenly without purpose. Making a happy and healthy adjustment to retirement requires reflection, planning, and a willingness to seek support when it’s needed.