Hall to connect with the people she worked with, but that led to her buying into an abusive narrative about herself. In other words, she was so committed to connecting with her boss and coworkers that she lost her connection with herself. She did very hard work to repair that relationship with herself and come to the place of understanding that, although many people, including herself, defaulted to thinking she was responsible for her boss’s feelings, she actually would not have that expectation for a friend. She practiced treating herself like a friend instead of a problem. Finally, Hall practiced accountability, meaning taking responsibility for her actions and dropping the responsibility she was taking for other people’s actions. She started dreaming about what was possible for her to create with the work she loved and making tangible plans around the actions she could take to build the career she wanted. She stopped inwardly debating about whether showing up in the world made her a bad person, whether she was too much and whether other people would always take advantage of her. She gave herself room to show up too big, make mistakes, and say the wrong thing while she was trying to create the career she wanted. One of the goals she set for herself was to be a sought-after keynote speaker. She did not accomplish that goal overnight, but through daily work of enforcing her boundaries, maintaining a healthy relationship with herself, and taking sometimes difficult and sometimes boring action to get there. Like so many people, she went from shaking under a blanket to speaking on a stage. Hall’s story is a reminder that while our clients may, at times, appear frail and broken, and even believe themselves to be, it is possible for them to recover and make incredible impacts on the world. 17 Trial Lawyer | Fall 2024
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