Corporate Training and Public Speaking
Training on the Human Side of High-Stakes Work
The people who come to you in a family law matter are often in the most destabilizing period of their lives. Understanding what that does to someone (how it shapes what they say, what they can tolerate, and how they behave) makes for better professional practice. Shelby Doherty-Sirkovich, RP, MACP brings clinical depth to professional development sessions designed for legal and family law organizations.
Clinical expertise, applied to professional contexts
Shelby Doherty-Sirkovich is a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO #12083) and Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist with a focus on betrayal trauma, high-conflict relationship dynamics, and the long-term effects of institutional and family system failures.
Before training as a therapist, she worked in a family law setting. That context shapes her understanding of what legal professionals encounter, and why the clinical picture of a client in crisis rarely translates cleanly into a professional intake or a court document.
Her training sessions are grounded in clinical research and designed to be immediately relevant to practitioners who work with people in difficult family circumstances.
Credentials:
Registered Psychotherapist, CRPO #12083
Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, Yorkville University
Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist – Individual (CCTS-I), Arizona Trauma Institute
Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution, York University
Session Topics
Sessions are tailored to the requesting organization. The four core topic areas are:
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Based on Jennifer Freyd's Betrayal Trauma Theory, this session examines why people navigating separation, divorce, and family court often present in ways that are difficult to understand, and why the standard trauma framework doesn't fully account for what they're experiencing.
Relevant for: family lawyers, paralegals, mediators, access supervisors, court-connected social workers, collaborative practice professionals.
What the session covers:
What betrayal trauma is and how it differs from other trauma responses
Why clients struggle to give clear, linear accounts of what happened to them
How betrayal trauma responses are commonly misread in professional settings
What practitioners can realistically do with this understanding
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Abuse in family breakdown often doesn't look the way people expect. Coercive control can be invisible in a file. High-conflict patterns can make it genuinely difficult to identify what's driving the conflict. This session offers a clinical framework for understanding what's happening beneath the surface.
Relevant for: family lawyers, law clerks, mediators, collaborative practice professionals, family law associations.
What the session covers:
The clinical difference between high-conflict patterns and abuse dynamics
DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender): recognizing the pattern in how clients describe their situations and in how conflict unfolds
Why coercive control is hard to see from the outside
How practitioners can hold appropriate professional boundaries while remaining informed
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High-conflict patterns aren't exclusive to family breakdown. They surface in professional relationships, organizations, and disputes of all kinds. This session applies clinical frameworks to workplace and professional contexts.
Relevant for: law firms, professional associations, HR professionals working within legal organizations.
What the session covers:
What high-conflict patterns look like in professional relationships
Communication approaches that reduce rather than escalate conflict
When organizational difficulty reflects something more entrenched
Practitioner boundaries and self-protection
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Working closely with people in crisis takes a toll that doesn't always get named accurately. Secondary traumatic stress (absorbing the emotional weight of difficult client situations over time) is common in legal practice and often mistaken for burnout or compassion fatigue. This session offers clinical clarity and practical tools.
Relevant for: family lawyers, law clerks, court-connected professionals, legal aid staff.
What the session covers:
Secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue: what distinguishes them and why it matters
How secondary trauma accumulates and what it looks like in practice
Regulation tools that fit within a professional workday
Organizational approaches to sustainable practice
How sessions are delivered:
Sessions are available in the following formats, adapted to the organization's needs and schedule.
Keynote presentations: 45 to 90 minutes, suitable for conferences and association events
Lunch-and-learns: 60 to 75 minutes, conversational format, suitable for firm or team sessions
Half-day workshops: approximately 3 hours, includes discussion and Q&A
Full-day workshops: in-depth coverage of one topic area with applied components
Webinars: live virtual delivery for distributed teams or national organizations
Panel appearances: available for professional association events and continuing education panels
All sessions are available virtually or in person.
Who these sessions are designed for:
Family law firms developing their team's understanding of client trauma responses
Legal professional associations seeking continuing education content with clinical grounding
Collaborative practice groups and family law mediators
Court-connected organizations and family services providers
Law schools and paralegal programs seeking guest speakers on trauma and family law
If your organization works with people navigating family breakdown, conflict, or institutional processes, this content is built for your context.
Inquire About a Session
Sessions are priced based on format, length, and travel requirements. To discuss fit and availability, use the form here.
Shelby Doherty-Sirkovich, RP, MACP shelby@365therapy.ca
Shelby Doherty-Sirkovich is a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO #12083) practicing in Ontario. Corporate training and speaking services are distinct from psychotherapy and do not constitute a therapeutic relationship. Training content is educational and is not a substitute for clinical, legal, or organizational consultation.