This week’s question is from Laure, in Canada. She writes:
Thank you for blogging about the various issues raised during your therapy sessions, I find it most interesting to read and learn from! I particularly appreciate your insight on lawyer patients, as I I will soon be entering law school, and all of your comments on trust (trusting others at the law firm, trusting one’s therapist and one’s partner, for example).
I was wondering if you could please develop and give examples on how to apply your advice given during your interview with Above the law (February 11, 2010) :
“I’d tell them to maintain a “self boundary” – a sort of emotional insulation from the toxic environment of law firms. There is work, and there is you, and there is a firm boundary between the two. You can do what is asked of you, and tolerate some brutal treatment at the office, but that toxicity doesn’t enter your soul; it doesn’t get in where it shouldn’t be, where you dwell, with the child that you were, the vulnerable you that needs love and care and appreciation.”
How would a law student go about shutting out the toxic environment and competitiveness of law school?
And here is my answer:
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The People's Therapist 
Can the same thing apply to family? And how do you do that without coming across as crass, self-absorbed or neglectful?
Family is tricky. At least with work, at the end of the day, you physically leave the office. And you may or may not return on weekends. That is not necessarily the case with family, especially when you live with them.
You might want to find a way to create some physical space for, say, a long weekend. Or more, if you’ve got the time. I took a 3 week road trip. It was hard the first couple of days, kind of like I had abandoned them in a time of need, but it seems to have made a difference, for all parties. We all got some space. And it reminded me of me. Might sound silly, but sometimes you can’t see what your in while you’re in it, the “forest for the trees” thing people often dismiss. Being removed from the surroundings, though, can make a difference.