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?