A "whole person" approach to conflict resolution

What would a "whole person" approach to conflict resolution mean to you?
How can a lawyer or a coach support a client's many needs at a time of stress and conflict, when not all of those needs can be successfully met through the legal system?
Can a "coach" who is also an experienced attorney serve as a "second chair" to assist both the client and the attorney of record in communicating more effectively with each other and working toward achieving the client's real goals?

The need to be heard

Sometimes when a client is utterly determined to take a case to court "no matter what," what the client really craves is to be HEARD - to have someone with some authority listen, at length, and with as few interruptions as possible, to the client's whole story from beginning to end.  Even when the case seems unwinnable, the client needs the validation that comes with the opportunity to tell the entire story and to know that someone of importance is listening.  Mediation should fill some of that need, but for many people it does not, because they have an emotional investment in conflict that is not satisfied by mediation.  So what other avenues are available to the lawyer whose client has that "unwinnable case" but who is deeply invested in the need to be heard?