A Conversation with Helen Bukulmez

In this week’s webinar, “Why Embracing Mental Health and Wellness Is Good For Your Law Practice,” our CEO Gabriela Cubeiro sat down with Helen Bukulmez, Personal Injury Lawyer, Marketing Professional, and Founder of ‘Hiking With Lawyers‘ Group. The two discuss wellness for lawyers, effective project management tips, and how cultivating a healthy relationship between technology and wellness can benefit not only your practice but your mental health as well.

Helen Bukulmez begins the conversation by deconstructing what wellness means to her. She talks about finding joy in the challenges that life throws at you. Helen dives into how “success” looks different for every individual and that there is no single right way to be “successful.”

Helen encourages the audience to think about what wellness looks like for themselves – is wellness calmness, joy, wealth, or having time for yourself or your family? Helen encourages listeners to take an introspective look into how they define wellness in their personal lives. She speaks about success in relation to wellness and explains in her view, how society and media have created a definition of success that is unattainable and unrealistic for many people. Throughout the conversation, Helen identifies that wellness is rarely included in the narrative of pursuing a successful life.

The two begin to talk about the current state of mental health among lawyers and how many get distracted trying to adhere to society’s definition of success. Elaborating further, Helen notes that material objects are often not connected to an individual’s true meaning of success and distract them from their purpose. She stresses the importance of digging deep and creating your own definition.

Helen encourages the audience to reflect and ask themselves, “Do I even know myself? Why am I doing this? And how can I do this in a way that has a stamp of me and not the society?” She notes that people typically stick to the comfortable answers and like to stay in their comfort zone; even if that comfort zone is not happy, healthy, or even successful. She encourages attorneys to ask themselves if they are well enough to do their jobs, if they are the best versions of themselves, and if they are satisfied with their current state of wellness. Furthering Helen’s suggestions, she notes that before we can get to the point where we are happy with ourselves, the service we provide to our clients will not be the top-notch service that our clients deserve. 

Gabriela Cubeiro brings up the topic of authenticity and explains that it is a driving force for connecting with clients. She elaborates that clients want to feel like they can connect with their lawyers on a human level and explains how improving wellness can influence a more authentic self. Helen echos Gabriela and explains that authenticity can be felt over the phone and that clients are drawn towards purpose-driven employees and firms.

Helen and Gabriela talk about finding balance as a lawyer and how it begins with planning and organization. Helen explains that technology can help lawyers plan their workflow, be more organized, and set their path to wellness. Further discussing technology’s role in providing lawyers peace of mind knowing that they aren’t going to miss a statute, that they are reaching out to clients on a regular basis, and that nothing is going to slip through the cracks.

Throughout Helen and Gabriela’s discussion, the two touch on several key topics around improving the state of wellness for lawyers, managing mental health, and how technology fits in. Watch the full webinar for more valuable insights from this conversation with Gabriela Cubeiro and Helen Bukulmez.