By Sarah Fenske | This piece originally appeared on St. Louis Magazine
October 30, 2026 | St. Louis court rolls out counseling for jurors struggling with their service.
When Tamra Thorsen was summoned to jury duty in St. Louis in the summer of 2025, she had no idea of the human suffering she’d be called to witness.
It began even before she was selected for the panel: While lawyers probed prospective jurors by asking about their previous experiences, the woman next to Thorsen suffered a panic attack while disclosing an incident in her past. “It disqualified her for serving on the jury,” Thorsen recalls. “But certainly at a cost to her.”
Then came the trial itself—a murder case involving gory photos, small children, and family violence. Thorsen says the jurors worked well together, but some members struggled with the world they’d been plunged into. “I think it was the combination of both really graphic photographic evidence and that it became important in the deliberations,” she recalls. “So we had to see it repeatedly, and then there was a child eyewitness, and she gave recorded as well as live testimony. Every day, being immersed in the details of that case, it felt heavy.”
Now an initiative at the St. Louis Circuit Court aims to help jurors cope with the trauma Thorsen’s panel experienced—and maybe even prevent some of it in the first place. The new offerings were spearheaded by Circuit Judge Katherine Fowler, who convened a task force this summer including defense attorneys, prosecutors, victim advocates, psychologists, and students (both high school and college) to discuss how they could better support jurors.
“Whether it’s because they’re being asked to view really gruesome evidence or look at photographs that are troubling or deal with really heavy subject matter, or because the case involves something that triggers a prior traumatic experience, we have seen this in our courtrooms, and we thought, ‘We can do better,’” Fowler says.
One piece of the initiative has been developing a trauma-informed courtroom protocol and making sure all judges and their staff are trained in it. The protocol offers a new way to handle the questioning of prospective jurors about violence or other trauma: People now have the option to share more privately instead of being forced to disclose their past nightmares before a room full of strangers.
The full bank of judges approved the new protocol in September. Then, earlier this month, a St. Louis circuit judge for the first time heard a sexual assault case where the new option was in effect, and Fowler says some prospective jurors chose to share their experiences more privately.
Another part of the protocol: The court is partnering with the YWCA of St. Louis to offer free therapy to jurors, helping them process both the jury experience and any prior trauma that their service triggered. That’s more than a brochure outlining options (although now there is also a brochure): At the end of cases involving sexual assault or homicide, the YWCA will have professional counselors at the courthouse, offering to talk to jurors who are interested.
Says Fowler, “Instead of sending people away after they literally look like they’ve been through a war and saying, ‘Hey, thanks for your service, good luck,’ we can have a trauma therapist on site to say, ‘Let’s talk about it.’”
Samantha Wayant, senior director of crisis services for the YWCA, says her organization was immediately on board to help provide that therapy. The YWCA has long been focused on helping victims of sexual violence, and in addition to a free hotline and counseling services, in 2025 trained 250 St. Louis police officers in best practices for responding to sexual assault and domestic violence calls. This felt like a natural extension of those efforts.
“It absolutely is not a small undertaking, but it fits into our Sexual Assault Response Team model where we respond out to area hospitals. We respond to police departments,” she says. “We are used to responding to individuals who have witnessed or experienced a trauma.”
The YWCA is aware that in many cases, Wayant says, people don’t first disclose their sexual assault to law enforcement. They might tell a friend. They might wait years and then find themselves disclosing it while on jury duty. That makes the courthouse yet another place to reach victims who may not even realize how much they want help.
Indeed, Fowler says she’s been struck by how many people are carrying trauma that comes out during jury service. “What I’m shocked by is how many people say to me, ‘I was molested, and I’ve never told anybody.’ Their first disclosure is to me.”
She adds, “I am sometimes on the floor with jurors where they are just sobbing and really, really overwhelmed by the experience.” Now she has ways to help them.
And it’s not just her courtroom. Fowler says she received enthusiastic updates from her colleague who had the sexual assault case this month where the protocol was first put into place. “To see judges wake up to the call to better support our jurors through the trauma has been really exciting for me,” she says.
Yesterday, Fowler was honored as part of the YWCA’s Second Annual Regional St. Louis Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Awards, along with three other individuals and two organizations “making positive differences in the lives of sexual assault and domestic violence survivors.”
But she’s even more excited at the idea of other courts following St. Louis’ lead. She’s been connected to courts in Canada that are considering adopting the model developed in St. Louis—and she’s hoping other Missouri circuits will do so as well.
“We did so much research to find what other places were doing, thinking surely somebody else is doing this and doing this better, and we didn’t find it,” she says. “Our hope is that we will see it be effectively used in St. Louis, and we’ll be able to scale this pretty quickly from there.”
ABOUT YWCA:
YWCA Metro St. Louis is a leading provider of services that promote safety, stability, and opportunity across the region, serving more than 10,000 individuals and families each year. YWCA Metro St. Louis is dedicated to empowering individuals, families, and survivors by facilitating a future where every person is safe, supported, and heard. Programs include crisis response and housing, early childhood education through Head Start and Early Head Start, and career readiness and supportive services for individuals and families.