Working with Interpreters in Psychological Therapy

Boyles, Jude; Talbot, Nathalie

doi:10.4324/9781315272153

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Training for therapists and interpreters in working effectively together was viewed as essential, both by interpreters and by practitioners, who were interviewed. In this way, the interpreter is incorporated into the professional team (Boyles & Talbot, ).…”

Section: The Original Research Findings Underpinning the Culturally Amentioning

confidence: 99%

The talking cure—building the core skills and the confidence of counsellors and psychotherapists to work effectively with multilingual patients through training and supervision

Costa

Dewaele

2018

Couns and Psychother Res

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Background Increasing numbers of multilingual people seek counselling and psychotherapy in a system that is rooted in a monolingual ideology. Despite these numbers, there is very little training for therapists and counsellors equipping them to treat multilingual patients. This is strange given that therapeutic treatment is known as the “talking cure.” Research with therapists and counsellors about their beliefs and behaviour with multilingual patients revealed that therapists were anxious about their ability to work with multilingual patients. Mothertongue multiethnic counselling service, a small NGO based in the UK, developed and delivered training for counsellors and therapists and culturally and linguistically sensitive supervision groups for counsellors and therapists working in their local NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Service. They also developed and delivered a module on culturally and linguistically sensitive supervision for IAPT supervision courses. Aim An evaluation of these initiatives was conducted, to explore whether they would improve therapists’ core skills in working with multilingual clients. Method A combination of questionnaires, which employed Likert scales and Open Boxes, and face‐to face interviews were conducted with trainees and supervisees who had participated in these training and supervision initiatives. Results After the training and supervision, the confidence and multilingual awareness of counsellors and therapists improved, with an average score of improvement of 4 points on a 10‐point scale. All seven of the interviewed counsellors and therapists said they felt more able to use multilingualism as a therapeutic asset in the treatment of trauma and other presenting issues. Conclusions and implications This type of training and supervision has the potential to change counsellors’ and therapists’ thinking and behaviour, enhance their core skills and impact directly on mental health practice and the reduction in health inequalities. As a result of these sessions over the past decade, and the evidence from the evaluations, linguistically and culturally sensitive supervision is now being embedded into the structures of one local NHS service.

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Section: The Original Research Findings Underpinning the Culturally Amentioning

confidence: 99%

The talking cure—building the core skills and the confidence of counsellors and psychotherapists to work effectively with multilingual patients through training and supervision

Costa

Dewaele

2018

Couns and Psychother Res

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“…However, when family members acted as interpreters, their role was to give both practical and emotional support (Hadziabdic et al, 2014), and this led to both positive and negative emotions and outcomes. It is therefore recommended to work only with professional interpreters in therapeutic consultations (BABCP, 2019;Bernardes et al, 2010;Boyles and Talbot, 2017;British Psychological Society, 2017;Costa and Briggs, 2014;Doherty, 2010;Miller et al, 2005;Salaets and Balogh, 2015;Tribe and Lane, 2009. ) So how is the therapist's choice, to work only with a professional interpreter, reconciled with the patient's wish to be interpreted for by a family member?…”

Section: Case Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interpreter-mediated therapy triad is not exempt from the pulls and pushes inherent in triangular relationships. This has been explored extensively elsewhere (Boyles and Talbot, 2017;Hadziabdic et al, 2014;Costa and Briggs, 2014;Costa, 2011;Crezee et al, 2011;Messent, 2003;Tribe and Thompson, 2009). Our own histories of being in triangular relationships can trigger unhelpful behaviour.…”

Section: Managing Three-way Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patients (and therapists) also need to be able to have access to appropriately trained interpreters 2 if they are truly going to experience equity of access to mental health services 3 . However, many therapists, understandably, feel anxious about incorporating a third person into what is traditionally a dyadic relationship (Boyles and Talbot, 2017;Doherty et al, 2010;Tutani et al, 2018), particularly when that third person seems to hold the power of enabling the communication between all three participants in the conversation. After all, an interpreter could add or detract from any part of the conversation and the patient and therapist would be none the wiser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interpreter-mediated CBT – a practical implementation guide for working with spoken language interpreters

Costa

2022

tCBT

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In the UK, over three-quarters of a million people cannot speak English well enough to access cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in English. If they are to receive an equitable service, they need to be able to access (spoken language) interpreter-mediated therapy. This means that CBT therapists may need support, through training and supervision, to feel confident and positive about incorporating an interpreter into the therapeutic relationship. The requirement for CBT therapists to be able to work effectively with an interpreter is currently acknowledged in the new BABCP minimum training standards and core curriculum, which are recommended for adoption (BABCP, 2021). Understandably, therapists can feel anxious about working with a third person in the room, but when these anxieties are honestly addressed and explored, creative solutions can be found. Therapy is usually conducted in a dyad. A triadic relationship requires attention to the systems at play inside and outside of the therapy room. With careful preparation and planning, interpreter-mediated therapy can be an effective and positive experience for the patient. After an introductory section, the paper is divided into six implementation sections: preparing for interpreter-mediated therapy; meta communication; boundaries; managing three-way relationships; working with interpreters remotely; and support needs of interpreters. Using a case example approach, interpreter-mediated therapeutic situations, which illustrate challenges and solutions, and examples of good practice, are explored. The paper offers practical guidance and illustrations which can form the basis of a training programme which teaches CBT therapists how to form a collaborative working relationship with an interpreter, how a therapist can stay active and maintain their clinical authority in a session in which they do not understand what is being said, and how CBT therapists can ensure that the therapy session remains safe and effective for all three of the participants in the interpreter-mediated encounter. Key learning aims (1) To help CBT therapists feel more confident and positive about working with spoken language interpreters. (2) To prepare CBT therapists to create a more accessible service for those patients who do not speak sufficient English to engage in therapy without support. (3) To provide CBT therapists with key principles for managing the pulls and pushes in a triadic relationship when you do not understand the language(s) spoken in the room.

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“…But unlike a mediator, the interpreter does not negotiate between the parties. Some psychotherapists may feel anxious about incorporating a third person into the intimacy of the dyadic therapeutic relationship but others welcome working with an interpreter (Boyles & Talbot, 2017). Costa (2017Costa ( , 2020 pointed out that the presence of an interpreter adds an extra layer of complexity and requires careful preparation.…”

Section: Emotional Communication In Therapeutic Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions and mediation between multilingual clients and their psychotherapist

Dewaele¹,

Kennedy²,

Rolland³

et al. 2020

babylonia

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The editors pointed out that all interactions require some degree of mediation. In other words, a common ground needs to be established on which communication can be based, and when difficulties emerge mediation will be required. In this paper, we will argue that there are contexts where the assumption of common ground is stronger or weaker depending on the training, experience and disciplinary background of those involved in the interaction. The need for mediation may thus be greater in contexts where the assumption of common ground is over-optimistic, and where the consequences of not spotting the potential misunderstanding, and hence skipping mediation, may be serious. Language professionals are very much aware of variation in language proficiency and are less likely to assume complete common ground with fluent Foreign Language (LX) users than professionals from other backgrounds for whom language is merely a technical tool that does not merit special attention. Thus, considering an interlocutor who can talk easily about the weather in an LX, a Foreign Language teacher is less likely to assume complete linguistic common ground than a psychotherapist whose main concern is to locate the source of a client’s issues. The language teacher has been taught that students may have linguistic and cultural gaps that are not immediately apparent and that meaning may need to be negotiated in the classroom. The psychotherapist has been trained to try to understand the client’s worldview, but frequently that training ignores their clients’ linguistic profiles and experiences. Negotiation about meanings and across differences and power differentials, which goes to the heart of psychotherapeutic communication, often ignores the linguistic gap. In particular, psychotherapists (especially monolingual ones) may be less aware that multilinguals can have different levels of proficiency in different discourse domains (Grosjean, 2016). In other words, the ability to converse fluently in the LX about certain everyday topics does not necessarily imply an ability to convey subtle, complex emotions in that language. Clients themselves may be unaware of this. The aim of the present paper is therefore to highlight the need for extra awareness among psychotherapists about both visible and invisible linguistic and cultural obstacles to emotion communication that will require mediation with their LX clients, using appropriate strategies.

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Working with Interpreters in Psychological Therapy

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

The talking cure—building the core skills and the confidence of counsellors and psychotherapists to work effectively with multilingual patients through training and supervision

The talking cure—building the core skills and the confidence of counsellors and psychotherapists to work effectively with multilingual patients through training and supervision

Interpreter-mediated CBT – a practical implementation guide for working with spoken language interpreters

Interactions and mediation between multilingual clients and their psychotherapist

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