Mental Health for Attorneys: Burnout, Competence, and Neuroscience-Based Self-Care

Mar 20
2 min read

The legal profession has a stress problem, and most attorneys already know it. What they're less equipped to understand is what chronic stress is actually doing to their brains and why that makes it a professional competence issue, not just a personal one. That's what we are addressing in this CLE, and it's one worth taking seriously.

Dr. Doreen Dodgen-Magee, a Portland-based licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience, approaches attorney well-being from a clinical psychology and neuroscience perspective, connecting what happens in the brain directly to professional performance. She explains how stress affects cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and professional judgment. She introduces the concept of "belonging to yourself" versus "belonging to your work," a framework that reframes self-care not as indulgence but as a prerequisite for competent legal practice.

Using the Zones of Regulation framework, Dr. Dodgen-Magee walks attorneys through how to identify their personal stress indicators before they become a problem. The course provides over 20 concrete, evidence-based strategies attorneys can use to build individualized self-care toolboxes, which assist with preventing, detecting, and addressing the mental health impacts that can compromise their ability to serve clients. The course also covers internal versus external locus of control as a foundation for building the kind of resilience that holds up under sustained professional pressure.

Dr. Dodgen-Magee brings serious credentials to this conversation. A Gold and Silver Nautilus Award-winning author, she has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Time Magazine, and has appeared on Nightline and Amanpour & Company. Her books include Deviced! Balancing Life and Technology in a Digital Age, Restart: Designing a Healthy Post-Pandemic Life, and In Praise of Boredom. The Case for Doing Nothing in a World that Won’t Stop. She delivers continuing education programs for psychologists, medical professionals, educators, and attorneys nationwide.

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