This self-assessment uses only published, validated screening instruments, scored exactly as their authors specify, with the authors' own interpretive ranges and full citations. The instruments were not written by Attorney Wellness Project. They reflect decades of peer-reviewed research on helping professionals, including published studies with public defenders and prosecutors.
What this is: an educational screening. It can tell you how your responses compare to established, research-based ranges.
What this is not: a diagnosis, medical advice, legal advice, or a substitute for evaluation by a qualified clinician. No screening instrument can diagnose any condition. Only a licensed professional can do that, in person and in context.
This assessment uses a single instrument, presented complete and unaltered, as its authors require. It takes about 5 minutes.
Instrument credit: The ProQOL is © B. Hudnall Stamm, 2009-2012, administered here free of charge, without alteration and with attribution, per the terms at proqol.org (now stewarded by the Center for Victims of Torture). Full citation appears with your results.
If you need support right now: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 24/7, free, confidential). Your state's Lawyer Assistance Program also provides confidential support from people who understand the profession.
How to read this page. Each score below is calculated exactly as the instrument's authors specify and compared against the interpretive ranges they published. These ranges describe how your responses compare to research samples. They do not diagnose anything. Elevated scores are an indication to consult a qualified professional. Nothing more, and nothing less.
A reasonable next step is a conversation: with your physician, a licensed mental health professional, or your state's Lawyer Assistance Program.
If what these results point to is burnout or compassion fatigue tied to the work itself, that's the specific problem Attorney Wellness Project works on. Our coaching and CLE programs are built for this profession, taught by attorneys, judges, physicians, and psychologists.
ProQOL-5. Reported scale reliabilities from the ProQOL Concise Manual: Compassion Satisfaction α = .88, Burnout α = .75, Secondary Traumatic Stress α = .81. The manual's interpretive cut points (22 and below = low; 23 to 41 = moderate; 42 and above = high) are used here without modification. The ProQOL measures professional quality of life; it is not a diagnostic test.
General limitations. Self-report screens are influenced by recent events, sleep, current stress, and how you feel today. A single administration is a snapshot, not a verdict. If a score surprises you in either direction, that is itself worth discussing with a professional.