“When I went to law school, when I started practicing law, nobody talked to us about trauma. We focused solely on legal issues,” said Myrna McCallum, a lawyer in North Vancouver and host of the podcast The Trauma Informed Lawyer.
“I had to learn how to be a human being and be in relationships with people and do no further harm to people, and that meant getting educated in trauma and empathy and compassion, and self regulation, and why people communicate the way they do and behave the way they do especially under pressure.”
Speaking about restorative justice processes, McCallum told People First Radio that she’s heard from many people who have been harmed that they want “to be made whole again.”
“They want to feel safe again,” she said. “They want to be who they were before the thing happened to them and I don’t think that any criminal justice process can give you that.”
On a recent episode of McCallum’s podcast, she spoke with Marlee Liss, whose sexual assault case was resolved through a restorative justice process.
“I’m not saying a restorative justice process will absolutely I guarantee give you that [repair], but if we listen to people like Marlee Liss and others who’ve been through some really transformative, restorative justice processes, what it can do is help you find your voice again, help you face the person who harmed you.”
“It can be really empowering and it can give you the foundation to do the work that you need to do to repair yourself because the reality is once you’ve been harmed in that way, nothing outside of you can really repair you. It all has to happen within you.”
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