Present Under Pressure: Emotional Regulation for Effective Legal Practice
A Five-Week CLE Series for Attorneys and Judges
Five-Week NO-COST CLE Series Exclusively for Active and Retired Members of the Buncombe County Bar
Course Dates: Tuesdays, October 20, October 27, November 3, November 10 & November 17, 2026
Time: 12:00–1:00 p.m. via Zoom
Fee: No charge for active and retired members of the Buncombe County Bar
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This five-week program provides attorneys and judges with practical, evidence-based tools for understanding and regulating emotions in legal practice. Through the lens of neurobiology and nervous system regulation, you will learn how emotional dysregulation affects thinking, communication, decision-making, and behavior, and what you can do to return to a more regulated state.
You will learn practical tools to:
● Recognize when you are becoming emotionally dysregulated
● Pause before reacting
● Regulate your mind, body, and emotions
● Think more clearly and function effectively under stress
● Effectively notice and handle emotions during difficult interactions
● Support regulation in others who emotionally dysregulate under stress
● Understand the relationship between emotional dysregulation, stress, and eating
Each week combines accessible neuroscience with practical mindfulness tools and lively discussion. The course draws from the frameworks of mindfulness, somatic inquiry, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and nervous system regulation to provide tools you can use immediately at work.
Five-Week Course Schedule
Week 1 — October 20
Understanding Emotional Regulation in the Context of Professional Well-being
Week 2 — October 27
Cultivating Your Emotional Window of Tolerance (WOT)
Week 3 — November 3
What To Do With Your Emotions
Week 4 — November 10
Helping Yourself and Others When Others are Emotionally Dysregulated Under Stress
Week 5 — November 17
Emotional Dysregulation, Stress & Eating
Who is Invited
New and experienced participants are welcome. Attending all five weeks is recommended because the material builds from session to session, but each class is designed to stand alone and drop-ins are welcome.
CLE Credits
Each class has been approved for one hour of North Carolina State Bar CLE credit and may be applied to the Professional Well-Being CLE requirement (formerly “mental health credit”).
You will receive one hour of CLE credit for each class you attend in its entirety. A Zoom poll will be administered at the end of each class to collect your name and Bar number for submission to the North Carolina State Bar.
Meet Your Instructor: Laura Mahr is a North Carolina and Oregon attorney and the founder of Conscious Legal Minds LLC, dedicated to helping lawyers, judges, and professional staff thrive in both their work and their lives. Drawing on Internal Family Systems (IFS), nervous system regulation, somatic inquiry, and mindfulness, she teaches evidence-based strategies to build resilience to stress, prevent burnout, and reduce the impact of vicarious trauma and emotional dysregulation in the field of law. After recovering from professional burnout herself using these approaches, Laura has spent over a decade helping attorneys, judges, and legal professional staff to strengthen their well-being through her writing, trainings, CLE presentations, and one-on-one resilience coaching. She authors the Pathways to Well-Being column in the North Carolina State Bar Journal and the Mindful Moment column and podcast for the North Carolina Lawyer Assistance Program’s Sidebar publication, and is a frequent contributor to other legal publications and podcasts. Find out more at www.consciouslegalminds.com