Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270098
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH LENGTH: Medium
Saul is a licensed psychotherapist who comforts clients and helps prepare them to handle the rigors of court hearings while their lawyers hash out divorce and child-custody details.
Hiring a therapist to soothe clients' jagged feelings isn't typical in the legal world. But a therapist can free lawyers to devote more time to legal matters, Burrows said. ``I feel that I can now allocate my time to what I'm best at, which is getting a case ready,'' said Burrows. ``Before, I was spending a lot of time worrying about my clients, and not really knowing what to do about his or her worries.''
Saul, she notes, gives no legal advice. She acts as a ``cheerleader,'' providing focused, short-term counseling to help the client get through the difficult steps of divorce. Burrows, a divorcee who later remarried, came up with the idea after recognizing the stress the process creates for clients and lawyers. She hired her first therapist - Saul's predecessor - last November.
The idea has its proponents at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University, which has formed a Legal Therapy Institute that in January will begin offering classes for mental health practitioners.
According to Dr. David Kupfer, a director of the institute and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the services may ``reduce or eliminate many of the psychological consequences of divorce.''
A therapist can devote from 10 to 50 hours counseling a client over the course of a divorce - mostly over the phone. Clients are now calmer and more focused during hearings, according to Burrows, who includes the charge for the therapist's services in her legal fee of $180 per hour.
by CNB