Stephanne Cline Thornton is a nationally recognized trauma‑responsive clinician, educator, and speaker who helps legal, clinical, and medical professionals build sustainable, healthy, and resilient careers. With deep expertise in how trauma shows up in the lives of helping professionals, and how it shapes the systems they work within, she equips audiences with practical, evidence‑informed strategies that strengthen well‑being, improve client care, and reduce burnout.

Stephanne serves as the Clinical Director for the West Virginia Judicial and Lawyer Assistance Program and heads Transform Legal, her consultancy dedicated to mitigation training, trauma‑responsive practice, strategic planning, coaching, and professional sustainability. She has spent more than two decades working in and around the criminal defense field where she witnessed firsthand the profound intersection between trauma and the law. Her work now helps attorneys, social workers, mitigation specialists, first responders, medical professionals, lay caregivers, and frontline professionals understand trauma’s impact, respond compassionately, and protect their own health in the process.

Through dynamic presentations grounded in real‑world experience, Stephanne teaches audiences how trauma‑informed practice enhances professional effectiveness, supports ethical decision‑making, and promotes long‑term sustainability in high‑stakes environments. Her mission is simple: to ensure the people doing society’s most demanding helping work can do it well—and do it sustainably.

Stephanne 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. Stephanne has an emphasis on trauma assessment and treatment, and is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and somatic treatment for trauma. Stephanne is engaged with the community and serves on various boards and committees.

Selected presentation topics are listed below, and Stephanne welcomes the opportunity to tailor content to your audience’s needs and training goals.