Make an Appointment: 504-715-0490 | Contact@BrandyUnger.com

Contact@BrandyUnger.com | 504-715-0490

Therapy for Lawyers & Law Students

You spent years training your mind to outthink everyone in the room. Now you can't get it to stop.

You can hold your composure through a hostile cross. You can manage a partner's last-minute demand and absorb a 60-page contract before lunch. What you can't seem to do is fall asleep without your mind drifting back to the case. You're not falling apart. You're functioning at a level most people couldn't sustain.

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A therapist who came to this work through the law, not around it.

I earned my JD. I worked at Tulane Law School as a career counselor, advising students through recruiting, exams, and the slow questioning of whether this path was the right one for them.

I spent several years in criminal defense, working in mitigation and forensic psychology on some of the most serious cases the system handles. I sat with clients facing the worst moments of their lives. I read the records. I built the narratives. I worked alongside attorneys who carried impossible weight and rarely had anywhere to put it down. The work gave me a working understanding of how the law shapes, and often quietly damages, the people inside it.

That arc is why my practice draws lawyers and law students.

I understand billable hours, partnership track, OCI, journal write-ons, and how a single email can hijack an entire weekend. I know what it looks like when case material follows you home. I know the way zealous advocacy quietly costs something most attorneys never name out loud.

You don't need to orient me to your world. We can skip the translation work and get to what's actually wrong.

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What Lawyers and Law Students Bring into Therapy

The patterns you'll recognize.

Anxiety that won't turn off.

The hyper-vigilance that makes you good at your work has stopped having an off switch. It follows you into bed, into the weekend, into your kid's soccer game, or into your apartment the night before a final. 

Burnout and quiet disengagement.

You used to care about the work. Now you're going through the motions and wondering what that means about you. 

Identity fusion with the profession.

You don't know who you are when you're not being a lawyer or law student. That can be quietly destabilizing, especially during transitions, sabbaticals, or after a difficult verdict. 

Imposter syndrome.

Especially around partnership review, after a loss, during 1L cold calls, or in environments where everyone else seems to have it more figured out than you do.

Secondary trauma from case material.

Criminal, family, immigration, and personal injury attorneys, and the law students working in their clinics, carry exposures they were never trained to process. The toll is real, even when the case is "just work." 

Substance use as a coping strategy.

The legal profession has well-documented rates of problem drinking, and those patterns often start in law school. If this is part of your story, you can name it here without judgment and without it becoming the only thing we talk about. 

Relationship strain

Relationship strain with partners, kids, or family members who are tired of competing with the firm or with finals. 

Career inflection points.

Staying, leaving, switching practice areas, going in-house, leaving the law entirely. Or for students: choosing a 2L summer, deciding whether to clerk, questioning whether you should have come to law school at all. We can think it through together without anyone trying to talk you into or out of anything. 

What does a typical session look like?

50 minutes, fully telehealth, HIPAA-compliant. I see clients during weekday business hours, including early morning and lunchtime slots that protect your billable day. Most clients meet weekly to start. My approach is integrative: CBT and ACT for the present-tense problem, with psychodynamic work when the pattern runs deeper. 

How is therapy for lawyers different from general therapy?

The presenting issues often look familiar. Anxiety, burnout, relationship strain. But the context is specific. The pressures of the profession, the way the work shapes identity, the emotional residue of case material, the cultural expectation of relentless competence. All of this needs a therapist who recognizes it on sight rather than learning about it from you. 

Do you work with law students too?

Yes. I worked at Tulane Law School as a career counselor, which gave me a close-up view of what students actually face during 1L, recruiting, journal, exams, and the slow questioning of whether this path is the right one. Law students often deal with the same patterns of anxiety, burnout, and identity strain that practicing attorneys do, frequently without the resources or vocabulary to name them yet. 

Do you work with attorneys at every stage of practice?

Yes. Associates, partners, solo practitioners, in-house counsel, government lawyers, and attorneys actively considering leaving the profession. The themes shift across career stages, but the underlying work is the same. 

What if my issues aren't "lawyer-specific"?

Most aren't, on the surface. Anxiety, relationships, self-worth, family dynamics, life transitions are all universal. The difference is having a therapist who already understands the environment you spend most of your waking life inside. 

What about confidentiality, including bar and character & fitness questions?

Therapy with me is fully confidential within the standard legal exceptions. Seeking treatment is not, by itself, reportable to any bar and I can talk you through how character & fitness disclosures actually work, so you can make informed decisions about your care without it being a strategic afterthought. 

Does telehealth actually work for therapy?

Research consistently shows it's as effective as in-person. For attorneys and students with full calendars, it's often the only sustainable way to make therapy happen — no commute, no waiting room, no awkward office encounters. Just a secure video session from wherever you have 50 minutes. 

How Therapy Works & Common Questions

The first session or two is diagnostic. We get specific about the real problem, not the version that fits cleanly in conversation, and what would need to change for you to feel different.

By the end, you'll know whether we're a fit and what working together would look like.

From there, sessions move with intention. I'm direct. I'll push when pushing earns something, sit with you when sitting is the right move, and skip the reassurance you'd see through anyway.

Serving attorneys and law students in Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Newark, Jersey City, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and across Texas, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Florida via telehealth. 

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