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Lectures and Events

New Program Helps Students Combat Stress: Lawyers in Balance

Imagine this: you are stepping onto a beautiful beach on some Caribbean island, feeling the delightfully warm sand between your toes. You walk down to the blue, blue water, where waves lap gently against the shore. Feeling perfectly relaxed, you decide to go for a swim. And when you open your eyes, you’re back in McDonough Hall.

It probably wasn’t the first time a group of law students dared to drift off in a classroom. But on this particular afternoon, a few minutes of meditation was encouraged as Professor Michael D. Lumpkin of Georgetown University’s physiology department showed students how they can change their body temperature (as measured by a tiny “bio-dot” sticker on their hands) by imagining themselves at peace.

The event was part of Lawyers in Balance, a new program at Georgetown Law designed to help busy law students cope with some of the stresses they may be facing in their lives. Besides seminars like Lumpkin’s, the program offers an eightweek- long noncredit class that students must register for, offering meditation sessions, stress reduction techniques, mindbody exercises and more. And it’s not only for students; sessions have been offered for faculty and staff as well.

“Of course we have this wonderful academic curriculum, but this was something that could really help them just manage stress,” says Carol Walsh, director of residence life and student programs at the Law Center. “When stress is not dealt with, that’s when we have all these other issues, not only mental illness but physical illnesses.”

Michael Goldman (L’69), the Law Center’s Jewish chaplan, became intrigued by the process of stress management after he was invited to participate in a similar program for Georgetown’s medical students several years ago. “I said, we have to have this at the law school, because the law students need it every bit as much as the medical students,” said Goldman, who facilitates some of the classes with Lauren Dubin of the Office of Public Interest and Community Service. (Walsh, Catholic Chaplain Alexei Michalenko and CLE Director Larry Center [L’74] are also Lawyers in Balance facilitators.)

Jacqueline Smith (L’09) said the class does a good job helping students focus on the present. “It’s what mindfulness is all about,” she said. Turning off the mind now and then works, too. A favorite activity of the class, “moving and shaking” to reduce stress, is actually easier than meditation, Smith reported, since students sometimes find it hard to forget their to-do lists.

“We’re not going to completely negate or eliminate the realities of practice,” Dubin says, “but already, the students are coming in and saying, ‘I used this during the week, I was able to step back, I was able to pay attention to my surroundings in a way that reduced the tension or anxiety.’”