Stephanne Cline Thornton is keenly aware of the many ways in which trauma is experienced in the work and personal lives of people in helping professions and how becoming trauma-informed can promote professional sustainability, personal health, and well-being. She is the Clinical Director for the West Virginia Judicial and Lawyer Assistance Program, and owns her own consultancy, Transform Legal. Through Transform Legal Ms. Thornton conducts mitigation and other trainings specific to the needs of practitioners in the legal, clinical, and medical professional space. Ms. Thornton believes in health, sustainability, and mindful practices to ensure those in the helping professions care for themselves to better care for those they are serving.

Through her work in and around the criminal defense field for more than 20 years, Ms. Thornton recognized an intersection between trauma and the legal field. This intersection exists for attorneys and non-attorneys alike because of the high stakes involved in legal practice and because the legal profession is a helping profession that depends on understanding the stories and experiences of the clients served. As a result, Ms. Thornton developed a trauma-informed approach to legal practice that is applicable to criminal defense, civil litigation, and non-attorney professionals. The work of all legal professionals is vital to creating equity, justice, and fairness in society and the practitioners doing this work deserve to do so in a sustainable way that recognizes the potential for practitioner vicarious trauma and responds to client trauma in a compassionate manner. Ms. Thornton furthers these principles of trauma-informed care and sustainability for helping professionals when working with first responders, frontline care staff, medical professionals, and others on trauma awareness, trauma responses, and compassion solutions of self-care.

Ms. Thornton holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University; a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University; and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Georgia. She has been clinically licensed as a social worker and addictions counselor since 2004 and currently holds a Master Addiction Counselor certificate, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Addiction Counselor Level III, Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. Ms. Thornton has an emphasis on trauma assessment and treatment, and is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and somatic treatment for trauma. Ms. Thornton was appointed to the West Virginia State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 2019, serves on the West Virginia Board of Social Work, and sits on the West Virginia Governor’s Council for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment where she also serves as co-chair of the Courts and Justice-Involved Populations subcommittee.