You know this client. Pacing at 3 a.m. Trauma-dumping on every call. Moral injury in every meeting. Wants to fight when they should settle, and settle when they should fight. In deposition and in court they will be incendiary, for reasons that have nothing to do with the facts.
A lawsuit puts your client's body on alert and never turns it off. The attack is totalizing, relentless and cyclical, and that state does not stop on its own. It needs active intervention, and it is not something lawyers are trained to provide. The literature says the opposite: attorneys absorb their clients' trauma at higher rates than mental-health professionals do, and with less support (Levin & Greisberg, Pace Law Review, 2003; Levin et al., Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2011). Sending the client to us protects you too.
What we do
This is a specialty. Legal trauma is the more accurate diagnosis for what your client has, and it calls for a particular approach. The Legal Trauma Recovery Method™ trains the physiology to turn pressure into focus.
We help your client be:
- A better witness. Calm, slow, brief. We prepare the physiology and the mentality for deposition and trial: composure, tone, pace, anger. We never touch substance. Your preparation does the rest.
- A manageable client. A client whose nervous system is no longer running the case calls less, listens more and makes reasonable decisions, not jacked-up ones.
- Nothing discoverable. No case facts, no recording, no notes, no clinical record. Education and coaching, not therapy. The work sits entirely outside the case and outside any privilege question.
We coordinate on your terms: confirm receipt of a referral, align sessions with your deposition and trial calendar, and otherwise stay out of your way. We do not report content, ever.
Who to refer
- Physicians and surgeons in malpractice claims, board complaints and peer review
- Founders, executives and directors in co-founder, investor, employment, IP and regulatory matters
- Attorneys in legal malpractice claims and disciplinary matters
- Any professional client whose sleep, judgment or composure has become a problem for the defense
What it costs the client
A free 20-minute call to establish fit. Then the one-day Executive Retreat ($1,500), monthly circles ($400), or private deposition-timed sessions by package. Many clients' carriers or employers sponsor the work; we invoice the sponsor directly. There is no referral fee in either direction.
About Dr. Lyman
Dr. Asher Lyman, PhD, is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Practitioner of Somatic Experiencing with more than 25 years of work with people at the hardest moments of their lives, and the creator of the Legal Trauma Recovery Method™. He is not an attorney and does not give legal advice.