Training, Counselling and Coaching for Lawyers

“It is rare to find a training workshop that helps practitioners on both a personal and professional level, but Annmarie delivers just that. She connects with participants on a personal and genuine level, and generously shares her own “lived” experiences.”

"Having been a family lawyer herself Annmarie is in the best position to know what family lawyers need in terms of education, training and support. Through her consultancy she is able to provide all these things and, as importantly, ask all the awkward questions and challenge the “that’s the way we have always done it” attitudes. A breath of fresh air and a much needed resource."

"I’ve been aware of Annmarie’s work since she started the Carvalho Consultancy and have been lucky enough to attend events where she has spoken and some of her training.  Annmarie’s approach is always compassionate and innovative.  She has a brilliant way of taking complex and challenging subjects and making them easier to understand and much easier to tackle."

“Annmarie has been an amazing support these last few months. She not only lets me talk about my worries in a safe and supportive environment, but offers practical solutions to them. Her experience of being a practising solicitor is highly beneficial and enhances her therapeutic advice.”

"I can truly say that the experience of working with Annmarie was life-changing and now I feel I have the emotional tools to face new challenges in the future"

"This is one of the best training courses I have ever done and Annmarie delivered it expertly. The session materials were very detailed and informative and Annmarie’s session was brilliant as it gave us takeaways to apply in practice. I would highly recommend Annmarie for training in this area."

"I have to say that whilst we have had a few wellbeing sessions, particularly in the last couple of years, that’s the first time in my 20 odd years of practice that I have attended one so specifically aimed towards the challenges that we face as a team. I found the session brilliant and those I have spoken to since feel the same."

“Working with Will has given me clarity, focus and motivation to achieve my goals. He has helped me identify what I want and how to get there. It has been a collaborative partnership, in a trusted environment, future focused, geared towards finding solutions.

Will has been a sounding board, providing valuable insights helping me stay on track. Bridging the gap between career development and personal growth. Will provides a non-judgemental environment with active listening, powerful questioning, accountability, all with his own industry-specific management experience. He has empowered me to develop new perspectives and improved my self-confidence. I cannot recommend Will highly enough.”

"I, for one, feel very reassured to know I have some tools in my belt, though I hope not to use them very often.  We here were really grateful to Annmarie both for the work that she put in beforehand (and we did ask for quite a bit of tailoring, which she handled gracefully!) and for her flawless delivery of the session."

"I have spoken with a number of mental health professionals over the years and my discussions with Annmarie have been by far the most helpful. She understands the pressures of a legal career in a way that other counsellors generally don’t, and she gives very helpful and practical advice on navigating life as a lawyer. Annmarie makes the sessions about you from day one and adapts them to focus on the areas that are most important to you. Perhaps most importantly, I tend to finish the sessions feeling happier and more relaxed, and have often been able to have a good laugh with Annmarie even while discussing some fairly grim topics. I would highly recommend her to anyone who is keen to look after their mental health, in good times or bad. "

"I had the opportunity to have a few sessions with Annmarie and it has been nothing short of a revelation - the positive impact on my mental health and my ability to formulate thoughts and feelings about topics I previously considered I had well covered has been immense. I have no doubt that this is down in very large part to Annmarie, her style is engaging, insightful, balanced, calm and non-judgemental, mixed with great intellect and humour. I highly recommend working with her."

"Annmarie Carvalho at The Carvalho Consultancy provides a really important service to my family law firm.  I am co-founder of Burgess Mee Family Law and we have 7 junior solicitors for whom Annmarie provides invaluable well-being advice and guidance on a regular basis in workshops."

"Annmarie began facilitating our in-house counselling sessions for lawyers just over a year ago. The feedback has been fantastic and due to demand, we very quickly doubled the number of appointments available per month, which are always fully booked.…. Annmarie can relate to many of the challenges faced by our lawyers due to her background as a city lawyer."

“Annmarie has been an amazing support these last few months. She not only lets me talk about my worries in a safe and supportive environment, but offers practical solutions to them. Her experience of being a practising solicitor is highly beneficial and enhances her therapeutic advice.”

“She offered unswerving support, true empathy and compassion together with a knowledge and understanding of the difficulties experienced as a partner in a family team.”

“TCC is such an innovation and it is so useful to speak to someone who totally understands the stress of being a junior lawyer and can both empathise and help you make things better with the benefit of experience.”

“Adam and TCC is such a great opportunity for me as a junior lawyer to develop coping mechanisms and decompress from the stress of day to day work. It is so useful to speak to someone who understands the difficulties you face as a lawyer. TCC is such a unique concept and I think any lawyers would really benefit from the sessions.”

“Carvalho provide an excellent service. They have covered areas in our discussions that are outside of work, as well as the work itself. This helps to provide an all round service. They have been friendly and made being open much easier.”

“The course has made me evaluate/reflect on my own practice and how I can improve the experience for both my client and I.”

“I found the session very engaging and highly relevant to our practice, particularly private law.”

“Really lovely presentation by Annmarie, professional but lighthearted and entertaining. Thought-provoking rather than prescriptive.”

“It was obvious that counselling skills should be part of the ‘toolkit’ of every barrister engaged in emotionally charged litigation. Indeed, I would recommend it to all of my professional colleagues, especially those dealing with emotionally vulnerable individuals caught up in the criminal justice system.”

“Annmarie ran a training session for senior lawyers on how to support colleagues who may be struggling with mental health issues. The session was well-tailored and well-run. We had a helpful open discussion and Annmarie provided thoughtful and practical advice.”

“I had the pleasure of working with Will Dawson in his capacity as a coach, and I cannot recommend him highly enough. Will’s extensive background in the legal profession, coupled with his senior management experience at top firm Farrer & Co provides him with a unique perspective that is invaluable to anyone in high-pressure industries.
 
Working with Will has been a transformative experience for me. His ability to blend his legal expertise and experience as a Partner, with emotional intelligence creates a powerful coaching dynamic. Will created a trusted environment where I felt heard and supported. He is a passionate and enthusiastic coach who I would not hesitate to recommend.”

“The Carvalho Consultancy provides an excellent, empathic, bespoke and engaging service to our Dispute Resolution Team. The large group training sessions cover difficult and complex topics with relevant, helpful and practical information.”

“Annmarie delivered the keynote to close our flagship company event, Scaleup GC, during mental health awareness week. She came highly recommended by a trusted peer, stepping into the programme at short notice, and boy did she deliver.

Audiences in the Professions, particularly lawyers, have very strong BS filters and can be difficult to please when it comes to subjects around wellbeing, mental health and certain soft skills. However, as an ex-lawyer, Annmarie has walked the walk, making it much more powerful when she talks the talk.”

“Annmarie Carvalho gave a huge engaging and informative presentation at our inaugural Southern Family Law Conference entitled “Wonky Windchimes”. Annmarie’s talk focused on the importance of lawyers handling family law cases being mindful of their own mental health – with the reference to “Wonky Windchimes” referring to the fact that all family law practitioners carry emotional “baggage” from their own lives and backgrounds. Annmarie emphasized the huge value to family law practitioners of therapeutic supervision being taken up by the family legal professionals as a way of ensuring that our own issues do not bleed into our everyday work, and so that we can also ensure that we have the resilience to handle what can at times being emotionally demanding work.

I would strongly recommend Annmarie as a speaker – she is not only hugely experienced in helping lawyers from a psychological perspective, but she also has the rare ability to present complex psychological concepts in the most accessible and, where appropriate, entertaining way. Annmarie is deservedly regarded as one of the very best therapists supporting lawyers but also as a fabulous trainer and presenter.”

“Annmarie is a powerhouse of a public speaker”

“Very helpful that we share a significant amount of background; it felt like we were speaking the same language from the beginning. Really assisted me to clarify my own thoughts and take them in new directions whilst feeling safe to do so. Had no qualms asking team members to speak to you and being open. Feedback was helpful; presented and a good jumping off point for next steps.”

“We were thrilled to be able to host Annmarie Carvalho’s “What’s Psychology got to do with it” training for family lawyers in our offices recently. We had over 30 delegates, mostly practising family lawyers across Scotland, and the feedback has been tremendous – we all got a great deal from the training and Annmarie herself was so engaging, warm and credible that the day passed in a flash. As one delegate said “I need Annmarie in my life!” She manages to cover really difficult subjects with compassion and humour – it made our roles seem more doable, and all the more important – I have already put some of the learning to practical use and know that I am not alone in that. We hope and intend to repeat and develop this fundamental skills training going forward – thank you Annmarie!”

“It was great to have Annmarie from The Carvalho Consultancy help us think through issues of conflict, cohesion and collaboration with a focus on our work in family law. As a former family lawyer herself, Annmarie is able to tailor her sessions on the area of law we specialise in and tailor the training accordingly. Annmarie is practical and clear in her presenting style. She quickly builds trust and our whole team valued the time we had together.”

“Working with Will has been a transformative experience for me. His ability to blend his legal expertise and emotional intelligence creates a powerful coaching dynamic.”

“Annmarie’s support has been a revelation. The positive impact has been immense.”