The Clearing: A Legal Forum
A quarterly offering for Shelterwood members with attorney and therapist Eric Ström
In a forest, a clearing is where the canopy opens and light reaches the ground — the place where you can finally see what's underfoot. That's the feeling this offering is going for: not a lecture or a crisis line, but a space where the legal terrain of our field gets a little easier to see.
Most of us only reach for legal support in a moment of crisis — alone, Googling at 11pm, unsure if what we're worried about is even the right thing to worry about. The Clearing is our attempt to change that. It's a standing, quarterly space where Shelterwood members can learn the legal landscape of our profession in community.
There is a specific kind of learning that happens when you watch someone else ask the hard question out loud. The Clearing is built around that: a live, unscripted fishbowl conversation where members get to witness real consultation happen in real time. How a good question gets asked, how a grounded answer gets given, what it sounds like to seek help well. This space doesn’t replace individual legal consultation, but it creates an opportunity to build your legal literacy and confidence by learning alongside your peers, so that when you do need to pick up the phone for your own situation, you're doing it from a more informed, less anxious place.
We’re excited to partner with Eric Ström to bring this quarterly offering to our members. As a dually licensed professional, he brings the rigor of a practicing attorney and the lived understanding of a fellow clinician to this space.
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Each quarterly forum will be held virtually. Sessions will be 50-minutes and include:
A legal landscape update (10–15 min): What's shifting in the legal and regulatory terrain for therapists right now, plainly explained.
A live fishbowl dialogue (10–15 min): A real conversation between Eric and a member working through a case- or topic-based question.
Open Q&A (remaining time): The floor opens to the full group.
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The Clearing is a member-only benefit, included in your Shelterwood membership at no additional cost.
Eric Strom
Eric Ström is an attorney and licensed Mental Health Counselor who has spent his career at the intersection of law and mental health care. Eric has spent more than a decade as an attorney with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, training and advising mental health and medical professionals, and has served as both a criminal defense attorney and a federal prosecutor. He continues to provide legal counsel to Naval medical facilities as a Lieutenant Commander in the JAG Corps Reserve, and provides therapy to combat veterans in Everett, Washington.
Eric holds a PhD in Counselor Education & Supervision, a Master's in Counseling Psychology, and a law degree earned cum laude from Wayne State University School of Law, along with studies at the Hague Academy of International Law. His consulting practice focuses specifically on the legal needs of psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, psychiatrists, and other health care professionals across Washington state.