Link to download the invitation

The terms vicarious or secondary trauma have been known in mental health professions since the ’80s. Both terms describe a common phenomenon among counselors working with trauma survivors experiencing traumatic symptoms resulted from hearing their patients’ trauma stories. Vicarious trauma among legal professionals did not receive the same attention despite its prevalence, leaving lawyers and judges without the relevant knowledge and suitable coping strategies. Our upcoming talk with Dr. Inbar Cohen will shed a light on vicarious trauma among legal professionals and focus on common signs and symptoms as well as coping skills and strategies.

Inbar Cohen, PhD

Dr. Inbar Cohen is a teaching associate at the University of Haifa School of Criminology and is the head of the Sociolegal Clinic at the College of Management school of law. Dr. Cohen is a social worker and received her PhD in Criminology from the University of Haifa. Her main scholarship concerns are therapeutic jurisprudence, critical criminology, and critical discourse analysis. Her research field includes the interchange between legal and therapeutic discourses pertaining to the effect of therapeutic principles on legal proceedings and vice versa, the effect of punitive goals on court mandated therapeutic interventions. Dr. Cohen has vast experience in related fieldwork as the Sexual Assault Crisis Center former head of the Witness Assistance Program for ten years until 2013 and as a social worker with youth-at-risk from 1996 until 2004. In addition, Inbar has been leading, for the past 10 years, a collaborative pioneering initiative with the Israeli ministry of justice, facilitating support groups for prosecutors dealing with vicarious trauma and burnout.

1 CEU credit available for social work for $10