Over the years, my best guess is I have worked with around 200 people overcoming toxic work environments, harassment and discrimination, and Hall’s is one of many that continue to inspire me. In fact, I struggled a bit to write this article because I admire so many of my past clients for different reasons; their experiences are vulnerable and easily misunderstood. Should I tell you about my client who experienced extreme racial violence and betrayal by the legal system? Should I tell you about my client who was a political figure and experienced death threats? Should I tell you about my client who came out as non-binary through the process of advocating for a subordinate in their workplace? There truly are so many amazing people making the world better through very difficult challenges. As plaintiffs’ lawyers, we are privileged to be able to work with them every day. Hall’s story stands out to me both because of the remarkable transformation she achieved and because of the hard coaching work she engaged in to recover from her experiences at work. When I represent clients who are still working in toxic environments, they go through a coaching program I designed based on the work that transformed my own life. While the clients have had very different experiences in the workplace and been targeted based on different experiences, there are many commonalities they share. I call these the three pillars of Empowered Communication™: Boundaries, Reprogramming Hegemony and Accountability. First, Hall made tangible safety plans for enforcing her boundaries. When we first started working together, her brain played scenarios over and over, terrorizing her about what might happen if she ran into her old coworkers or people found out about her experience. What if leadership turned against her again? What if she got trapped in an office with her old coworker? What if someone asked her why she left and she didn’t know what to say? What if she ran into her old boss again and he started crying? She outsourced enforcement of her boundaries, trusting her boss and her organization’s leadership to enforce them for her. While that seems reasonable most of the time, other people are not responsible enough to enforce our boundaries for us. And we still deserve to have clear and safe boundaries. This means making plans for them to be violated, to enforce them and then to reward ourselves for doing something hard. Second, Hall repaired her relationship with herself. She later described this, saying, “I kind of went into a deep, stressful place. I wasn’t functioning very well. I had to get on my feet and be able to be confident in myself after feeling like the bottom had fallen out for me. I like who I am now more than I liked who I was before the harassment even started.” Like most of us, it was very important to “There truly are so many amazing people making the world better through very difficult challenges. As plaintiffs’ lawyers, we are privileged to be able to work with them every day.” Holding Space for Growth After Trauma continued from p. 15 16 Trial Lawyer | Fall 2024
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