Vicarious Trauma

I recently met a 1L who is interested in immigration and refugee law. She cold-called my office and I agreed to meet with her. She is well travelled and she has a passion for social justice. She did extensive research into the area and she was well prepared. She asked what she can be doing during her law degree to put herself on good footing for this type of practice. Good question. My first thought was to learn active listening and develop the skills of a social worker. I’ll explain.

We have many (many!) international students and foreign workers who came to Canada on a promise of a better future. Trudeau sent a strong message that we would welcome them with open arms. Our reputation is that Canada has a strong humanitarian tradition. The published immigration levels during that period, before 2024, included huge numbers of new residents. Those messages were heard across the globe and many families made huge sacrifices to immigrate to our lands.

Then the “housing crisis”. The “rebalancing”. And now the cuts. The current goal is to reduce the temporary status population to below 5%. In actual numbers, this will mean thousands of people will have to leave and many folks who want to come will be denied.

The current situation in immigration is quite dire. Programs across the board are being cut. In 2024, IRCC released a levels plan that included significant cuts. Then, in 2025, they released an updated version of the plan with even more cuts.

Immigration lawyers are on the front line. We meet with the workers whose Work Permit applications have been refused. We listen to their stories. We hear the reasons they can’t go back and the reasons they need to stay. We review their immigration histories and we review their options. These meetings are often very emotional. We always have tissue paper on our conference room table and we go through quite a bit of tissue.

I recently attended a conference and we discussed how to cope during these difficult times. An immigration lawyer in Toronto stated that she does not even book consultations unless she can see a potential solution beforehand. She does not want to charge the consultation fee if the individual has no options. To protect her own mental health, she does not want to have meetings where the individual pleads with her (as though she has some influence with the Minister) to find a solution. I get it. I’ve been through too many of those meetings myself. They are difficult and they take a toll.

In refugee law, we make submissions based on potential “retraumatization” on the part of our clients to minimize the inherent stress and anxiety from their RPD hearing. We do our best to advise our claimants on coping techniques when they have to relive their past trauma as part of their testimony. On the representative side, I worry about “vicarious trauma” for myself, my team and for counsel who do this work. Many practitioners in this area get burnt out, deal with addiction issues or, ideally, they find coping strategies to deal with the stress.

In my practice, I find the following techniques helpful to cope with “vicarious trauma”:

1. Strong boundaries. Try to keep a space completely free of stress. Make sure that expectations are clearly communicated before the consultation. 
2. Pet therapy. Raoul Boulakia used to have 2 beautiful dogs in his office. We have tried to have dogs in our office but many of our clients come from countries where they don’t have dogs as pets. I had one family refuse to enter the office when they saw my lab and they were petrified.
3. Regular activity. I love how Lorne Waldman walks 20k steps per day (or something ridiculous). I don’t know how he finds the time to get in all his steps but he has practiced for years in this area so it seems to be working for him.
4. Strong support staff. I truly could not do this work without the support of my team.
5. Personally, I have practiced TM since 1995.
6. This work is not easy and we try to celebrate whenever we can, even small victories. A CBSA Officer granted our extension? Wonderful! Let’s celebrate that!
7. Stay organized. Every firm goes through difficult times. During those times, if the firm has a strong organizational structure, with clear systems in place, this can minimize the issues. I have seen a practice crumble from a traumatic event that cascaded into a series of disasters.

Do you have any good coping techniques? Feel free to share in the comments below.

I have accepted that our current government will be cutting programs and making decisions to remove many foreigners from Canada. This means that many international students and temporary workers will have to accept they do not have a future within our borders. I also accept the current public sentiment is anti-immigration. I made the mistake of perusing the comments of a CTV News segment on immigration. Frankly, I found the comments shocking and disappointing.

Front line workers must protect themselves from potential “vicarious trauma” and manage their firms as best they can. That may mean that they do not book consultations for the difficult cases where a potential client does not have any viable options. That also may mean sitting with individuals and listening to their stories. I do not expect that our office budget for tissue paper is going to go down.

For any law students who are interested in this area of practice, I will pass along the same advice that I shared with the 1L. Learn coping skills. There are days when I feel more like a social worker than a lawyer. Also, if you are interested in an area of legal practice, even if you are a 1L, do your research and meet with someone who is doing the work that you want to do. Mentorship is part of the biz.