One Language and Two Mother Tongues in the Consulting Room: Dilemmas of a Bilingual Psychotherapist

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is twofold: first, to explore the bilingual therapist's experience of working in a second language; and second, to explore the major functions of language within the therapeutic setting. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is used to explore in depth the experience of 16 bilingual therapists of different professional orientations: psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, counselling psychologists, clinical psychologists and counsellors. Semi-structured life-world interviews were employed in accordance with the exploratory nature of the research. Four major themes were identified: 'Listening and understanding the client'; 'Interventions and interpretations'; 'Potential impact of language on the therapeutic encounter: Therapist's point of view'; and 'Therapist's experience of self'. The data demonstrated differences in the understanding of functions of language within the therapeutic setting among psychotherapists. The importance of the symbolic functions of language in therapeutic discourse is discussed. In addition, the specifics of language within the therapeutic encounter are explored and outlined. Language is a complex semiotic system with many layers and facets which shape social interaction and influence our experiences and vision of the world; an inverse relationship also exists. It is no longer seen as simply reflecting one's reality but as a

Therapeutic Mother Tongue and its Implications on the Work of Polyglot Psychotherapists

“…Jimanez (2004) also suggests, that his recent acquisition of the German language made him more alert to literal meanings overlooked by native speakers. Gulina and Dobrolioubova (2018) bring similar findings, suggesting that polyglot therapists sometimes find themselves more alert to unique verbalisation, slips of tongue and double meaning in a foreign language.…”

“…Taking a research approach to the issue of polyglot therapists, Gulina and Dobrolioubova (2018) bring findings from a study exploring experience of foreign therapists that moved to a new country at an earlier stage in their careers, and went through their professional training in English. The researchers found that for polyglot therapists, language had many aspects; vocabulary, cultural background, behavioural differences, meaning, feeling, tonality, symbolism and communication.…”

“…They then went on to work in this language. Gulina and Dobrolioubova (2018) interviewed immigrant therapists who became therapists in English and worked in the UK, thus can be defined as having their foreign language English as their Therapeutic Mother Tongue. Like Edith, these participants expressed concerns and anxiety regarding their English, in matters of accent, vocabulary, understanding and communication.…”

Habla Mi Idioma? An Exploratory Review of Working Systemically with People from Diverse Cultures: An Australian Perspective

“…The importance of language and its impact in working therapeutically with clients from CaLD backgrounds has been recognised for decades, both in the United Kingdom (Bager-Charleson, Dewaele, Costa, & Kasap, 2017;Bowker & Richards, 2004;Costa, 2010;Gulina & Dobrolioubova, 2018;Itzhak, Vingron, Baum, & Titone, 2017;de Zulueta, 1990) and the United States (Burck, 2004;Hodes, 1989;Marcos, 1976;Santiago-Rivera, 1995;Santiago-Rivera & Altarriba, 2002;Santiago-Rivera et al, 2009). Despite the frequency of bilingual and multilingual families presenting for therapy, limited research has addressed issues related to differences in language between therapist and the family, and there is less about the implications of family members speaking two or more languages, the major themes identified being: 'listening and understanding the client'; 'interventions and interpretations'; 'potential impact of language on the therapeutic encounter: therapist's point of view'; and 'therapist's experience of self' (Gulina & Dobrolioubova, 2018).…”

Más Allá De Las Barreras: Competency and Practice Considerations in Language, Cultural, and Social Issues When Delivering Group CPT to Hispanic Immigrants

“…Additionally, as Aranda (2016) suggests, the commitment of achieving cultural competence when working with immigrants extends to interpreters, as language barriers are frequently present when working with immigrant populations, and thus, translation services are routinely utilized. Lastly, issues related to language (e.g., monolingualism, bilingualism, multilingualism) may have more significant impact than previously understood in counseling research in various areas including emotional expression, power dynamics, psychological flexibility, identity formation and memory encoding (see Costa & Dewaele, 2018 for a review), for both the client as well as the therapist (Gulina & Dobrolioubova, 2018), especially when trauma treatment is performed (Costa & Dewaele, 2018).…”