Stanford Law School WellnessCast‪™‬ Professor Joe Bankman & Sarah Weinstein

The Art of Yoga Project is a non-profit organization that serves over 700 at-risk, incarcerated and exploited girls every year, serving over 6000 girls since its inception over a decade ago. Its core work is in detention facilities in San Mateo, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. The Project goes directly into these facilities bringing a mindfulness-based curriculum combining yoga, meditation, creative arts and writing. Its mission is to empower young girls while teaching accountability and well-being. Its team includes specially trained, trauma-informed yoga teachers and art and writing educators. To keep girls connected after release, the Project has partnerships with middle schools and high schools that are primarily gang-impacted in their home counties. The Project also has programs for girls in substance abuse treatment facilities, level 14 facilities, and organizations working with sex-trafficked girls.

Please enjoy this conversation with Rocsana Enriquez, a former student and current teacher with the Project.

Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a farewell episode as Sarah departs to focus on her private psychotherapy and consulting practice.  Joe and Sarah interview each other about future plans and feelings about their work together on the WellnessCast™  As ideas take shape for the future of the Wellness Project and the WellnessCast,™ Joe would welcome input from law students about what content would be most useful.  Please contact Joe at jbankman@stanford.edu with feedback, suggestions, or ideas for a WellnessCast™ episode that you might like to co-host.  For law students and lawyers seeking executive consulting or counseling, please contact Sarah in her private practice at sarah@sarahweinsteintherapy.com or 510.697.8338.

Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for a special episode about public wellness. Our guest is R. Ashby Pate, a Birmingham, Alabama lawyer who served as the co-prosecutor in the 2016 judicial ethics case against then Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Ashby is also a former Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau and is well-known for an inspirational speech, Be the Light, in which he advocates for the importance of human connection in the practice of law. Ashby shares his experience as the co-prosecutor against Moore and brings an interesting perspective about the current political divisiveness in advance of the special senatorial election on December 12, 2017. After offering his own wellness technique for managing this important moment in Alabama's history, Ashby closes the episode with a WellnessCast™ first as he sings a few bars of Lead Belly's Midnight Special—featured prominently in Be the Light.

What are three things a managing partner in Biglaw should do if she is concerned about attrition at the firm? What are mindsets and how should law firm associates and partners use them to create a more positive work life? How should firms encourage their associates to grow by valuing psychological safety over perfection? Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman and Sarah Weinstein, a lawyer and psychotherapist, for an uplifting conversation with positive organizational psychology expert, Anne Brafford, JD, MAPP, as she shares a few of the many valuable insights in her new book, Positive Professionals: Creating High-Performing, Profitable Firms Through the Science of Engagement. In addition to offering specific guidance for creating more positive firms, the episode begins with a particularly poignant ‘hard moment’ from Anne, where she shares an experience of choosing to be a good human being, instead of an aggressive lawyer, during a deposition. We end with a discussion of our experiences trying out the wellness technique from last month and hearing about a stress mindset technique that Anne uses to thrive in her own life.

"Deprivation is creation," says psychiatrist Phil Stutz. If we stay calm when confronted with strong feelings of wanting more chocolate cake, alcohol, social media, sex, or whatever is our craving, these feelings of deprivation actually become a flashlight to help us see inside ourselves. "When you use this tool over and over and over again, you begin to look forward to your impulses, not because you're going to gratify them but because you're going to be able to turn deprivation into something empowering," adds Barry Michels. Join Stanford Law Professor Joe Bankman for an intimate conversation with old friends and bestselling authors Phil Stutz and Barry Michels, who first gained national attention when they were described in a New Yorker profile as the go-to therapists for those on the creative side of the entertainment industry. In their bestselling book, The Tools, and now in Coming Alive, Phil and Barry bring to the rest of us the compelling techniques they use with their patients. These easy-to-use techniques transform everyday challenges—big and small—into opportunities to bring about bold and dramatic change. To help us experience their work, at the end of the podcast, Barry Michels guides us through the Black Sun Tool, which helps control strong impulses and cravings.

Join us for a brief loving-kindness meditation guided by Jeena Cho, JD, our October guest on the WellnessCast™