No, we’re not talking about something from The Crystal Maze.
And it’s got nothing to do with The Krypton Factor (that reference is for my fellow over 40s – are you out there?!)
No, the golden cage is a term we like to at TCC to describe how some lawyers feel locked into their career/firm.
When it’s started to feel like it’s not a choice..
Like you’re trapped!
…By living costs
…School fees
…Practicalities
…and other assorted obstacles.
It’s easy to feel like there’s no way out.
And yet our experience (personally and from working with many lawyers in therapy) is, more often than not, the reality of trying to work out career stuff is like being tangled in a fisherman’s net.
Yes, there are difficulties.
But eventually (usually with some help), it is possible to find your way out of the net.
The golden cage I talk about is something different.
It’s the cage inside your mind. That keeps you wedded to things almost against your will.
It’s the job of decent therapy/coaching to have a look at that cage.
How was it constructed?
In our experience of therapising lawyers, it might have included a few bars of parental expectations…
…and been added to by a desire for security, structure, stability and money by us
…but usually what really reinforces that cage is the way law teaches us to think. In linear ways. Law often has the effect of shutting down our right brain – our creative side. The side that sees possibilities. Options.
But that is precisely the part of our brain we need when we’re thinking about our careers!*
*It also comes in pretty handy for finding creative solutions on cases…
We tend to think in black and white terms (law often celebrates definites). Yes/no answers. The binary.
So we say things like:
“I’m not qualified for anything else”
“I’m institutionalised”
We can’t see the world out there and how much it values the skills a lawyer acquires.
As I say, the job of decent therapy/coaching is to disentangle the fishing net and to have a look at the cage. To deconstruct it. To critically examine it. And to set you free.
And it doesn’t have to result in you leaving law! Or even your position.
The same job can feel very different once you’re freed from the cage. You start to relate to it differently once you realise you have choices.
We support lawyers. Because we’ve walked in your shoes.
I know it looks like Brian the Brain is wearing his widow’s weeds in the photo on this article but he’s not, he’s got a fisherman’s net on his head (actually, it’s a laundry bag, but you get the general idea)
No, we’re not talking about something from The Crystal Maze.
And it’s got nothing to do with The Krypton Factor (that reference is for my fellow over 40s – are you out there?!)
No, the golden cage is a term we like to at TCC to describe how some lawyers feel locked into their career/firm.
When it’s started to feel like it’s not a choice..
Like you’re trapped!
…By living costs
…School fees
…Practicalities
…and other assorted obstacles.
It’s easy to feel like there’s no way out.
And yet our experience (personally and from working with many lawyers in therapy) is, more often than not, the reality of trying to work out career stuff is like being tangled in a fisherman’s net.
Yes, there are difficulties.
But eventually (usually with some help), it is possible to find your way out of the net.
The golden cage I talk about is something different.
It’s the cage inside your mind. That keeps you wedded to things almost against your will.
It’s the job of decent therapy/coaching to have a look at that cage.
How was it constructed?
In our experience of therapising lawyers, it might have included a few bars of parental expectations…
…and been added to by a desire for security, structure, stability and money by us
…but usually what really reinforces that cage is the way law teaches us to think. In linear ways. Law often has the effect of shutting down our right brain – our creative side. The side that sees possibilities. Options.
But that is precisely the part of our brain we need when we’re thinking about our careers!*
*It also comes in pretty handy for finding creative solutions on cases…
We tend to think in black and white terms (law often celebrates definites). Yes/no answers. The binary.
So we say things like:
“I’m not qualified for anything else”
“I’m institutionalised”
We can’t see the world out there and how much it values the skills a lawyer acquires.
As I say, the job of decent therapy/coaching is to disentangle the fishing net and to have a look at the cage. To deconstruct it. To critically examine it. And to set you free.
And it doesn’t have to result in you leaving law! Or even your position.
The same job can feel very different once you’re freed from the cage. You start to relate to it differently once you realise you have choices.
If you’d like to be free from the golden cage, come and speak to us at TCC (The Carvalho Consultancy).
We support lawyers. Because we’ve walked in your shoes.
I know it looks like Brian the Brain is wearing his widow’s weeds in the photo on this article but he’s not, he’s got a fisherman’s net on his head (actually, it’s a laundry bag, but you get the general idea)