Interpreter-Supported Psychotherapy with Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Results of Qualitative Interviews with Psychotherapists and Interpreters on Opportunities and Challenges in the Triad (original) (raw)
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The Role of Interpreters in Psychotherapy With Refugees: An Exploratory Study
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2005
Findings are presented from a narrative study that examined the use of interpreters in psychotherapy with refugees. Fifteen therapists and 15 interpreters were interviewed at 14 refugee mental health treatment centers in the United States. Core findings concerned the impact of interpreters on the therapeutic alliance, the complex emotional reactions that may arise within the therapy triad, the effects of interpreting on interpreters' own well-being, the multiple roles that interpreters play in addition to translating language, and the training and supervision needs of interpreters and of therapists who work with them. Implications of these findings for agencies that use interpreters in their clinical work with refugees are considered, and specific recommendations are made concerning the hiring, training, and support of interpreting staff.
Verhaltenstherapie
Background: The therapeutic alliance is considered to be one of the most important factors of psychotherapy and is a necessary requirement for a successful treatment in interpreter-mediated psychotherapy. Patients and Methods: Using interpreter-mediated guided interviews, 10 refugee patients who experienced interpreter-mediated psychotherapy were asked about factors influencing the development of a trusting therapeutic alliance in the triad. The analysis of the interviews followed the rules of content-structuring qualitative content analysis. Results: A total of 11 factors were identified which could be assigned to the interpreter, therapist, or patient. In the analysis, the central role of the interpreter in establishing a therapeutic alliance in the triad became particularly clear. Conclusions: Consideration of the factors that, from the patients’ perspective, influence the establishment and maintenance of a trusting alliance within the triad, as well as the recommendations for ac...
Refugee and staff experiences of psychotherapeutic services
2017
While the need for psychotherapeutic services for refugees is well documented, little is known about the acceptability and validity of these approaches, especially from refugee and staff perspectives. Qualitative studies of user experience provide critical insight into the utility of current service approaches, and is both clinically and ethically indicated. Therefore, a systematic review of client and provider experiences of psychotherapeutic services is presented (11 studies), combining thematic synthesis and meta-ethnographic approaches. Key concepts to achieving acceptable care were: mutual understanding, addressing complex needs, discussing trauma and cultural competence. Each concept was enabled, or hindered, by a set of related themes. Results found that while practical assistance and advocacy are important to refugee clients, these aspects of care should remain rooted in therapeutic processes of mutual understanding, narrative continuity and self-empowerment through self-eff...
Qualitative Health Research
Mental health interpreters play a crucial role in clinical support for refugees by providing a bridge between client and clinician. Yet research on interpreters’ experiences and perspectives is remarkably sparse. In this study, semi-structured interviews with mental health interpreters explored the experience of working in clinical settings with refugees. We conducted inductive analysis informed by a reflexive thematic analytic approach. Our analysis identifies interpreters’ pleasure in being part of people’s recovery, offset by the pain of misrecognition by clinicians that signals low self-worth and invisibility. Three sites of tension that create dilemmas for interpreters are identified: maintaining professional boundaries, managing privately shared information, and recognizing cultural norms. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications for clinicians working with interpreters, with a focus on the importance of a relationship of trust founded on recognition of the in...
Perceptions of interpreters working for refugee clients of the psychological effects of their work
This study aims at presenting a picture of the perceptions of the interpreters working for refugees in legal and public healthcare settings in Türkiye with a focus on the psychological effects of their work. Taking this objective as a departure point, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the causes of psychological challenges, reactions to these challenges, coping strategies, and negative and positive psychological changes that interpreters went through in the course of their work. Interviews were analyzed following a thematic analysis procedure, complemented with the analysis of the questionnaire results. The findings revealed that the interpreters came under a degree of psychological strain, including psychological stress, in the course of their work. The reasons included trauma-related stories of refugees, service providers' lack of awareness of the interpreters' work specifications, unfavorable working conditions, and racism against refugees in the workplace. The interpreters were also found to show certain reactions to psychological challenges, including feeling sad, crying, and sleep problems among others. Findings also revealed that the interpreters employed a few strategies to cope with these challenges such as socializing with friends, and that the interpreting work with refugees led to mostly positive psychological changes on the interpreters. The changes involved gaining self-confidence and feeling stronger than before. The findings, pinpointing the needs for support structures for interpreters working for refugees in Türkiye, will feed into the overall discussions on the psychological dimensions of interpreting for refugee clients.
Service-users’ experiences of interpreters in psychological therapy: a pilot study
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 2014
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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY & COUNSELLING, 2022
Featured in this article is a psychotherapy case study recounted from the lived experience of the psychotherapist working with an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, with the help of a translator. The method applied is an aesthetic inquiry adapted from Autoethnography which engages the practitioner as the researcher who enters the ‘field’ of the therapy situation. The reflexive writing of the case story, which is integral to the method, sets off a heuristic process, integrating research and practice. Reading this case study, one may grasp the nuances and the atmosphere of an otherwise linguistically challenging therapeutic situation. The story and Gestalt therapy theory are weaved together, which makes palpable, intangible aspects of the therapeutic process.