Beverley Costa

Therapists are often unprepared to deal with their clients' use of other languages. This study focuses on therapists' experiences of having undertaken awareness-raising training about multilingualism. Did the training impact their practice? If so, in what areas? Adopting a mixed-method approach, quantitative data were initially collected via an online questionnaire with 88 therapy trainees and qualified therapists who underwent training in multilingualism, combined with interview data from 7 volunteers. Having identified the issues on which the training had had most and least impact in survey responses, the interviews were guided by our emergent interest into the impact of the training with potential relational complexities and unique, personal experiences in mind. A narrative-thematic analysis uncovered interrelated themes, relation to changes, or impact of the training, with regard to Identity and Therapeutic Theory Therapists referred to considerable transformative learning on both a personal and professional level, for instance in terms of how multilingual clients might bring different and sometimes conflicting ways of organizing events and experiences into meaningful wholes through their narratives during the session. Language switching seemed less significant in the survey, but emerged as a central theme in the interviews, especially with regard to the possibility of addressing, challenging and sometimes combining different emotional memories, cultural and existential concerns. Working across these areas triggered some therapists to consider the need for expanding their theory.

Therapists are often unprepared to deal with their clients' use of other languages. This study focuses on therapists' experiences of having undertaken awareness-raising training about multilingualism. Did the training impact their practice? If so, in what areas? Adopting a mixed-method approach, quantitative data were initially collected via an online questionnaire with 88 therapy trainees and qualified therapists who underwent training in multilingualism, combined with interview data from 7 volunteers. Having identified the issues on which the training had had most and least impact in survey responses, the interviews were guided by our emergent interest into the impact of the training with potential relational complexities and unique, personal experiences in mind. A narrative-thematic analysis uncovered interrelated themes, relation to changes, or impact of the training, with regard to Identity and Therapeutic Theory Therapists referred to considerable transformative learning on both a personal and professional level, for instance in terms of how multilingual clients might bring different and sometimes conflicting ways of organizing events and experiences into meaningful wholes through their narratives during the session. Language switching seemed less significant in the survey, but emerged as a central theme in the interviews, especially with regard to the possibility of addressing, challenging and sometimes combining different emotional memories, cultural and existential concerns. Working across these areas triggered some therapists to consider the need for expanding their theory.

This is a PDF copy of the anthology of international interpreters' stories, called In More Words, which we launched on October 5th 2017, in London.

My contribution appears on page 28.

Mothertongue multi-ethnic counselling service was awarded funding from the Big Lottery, to give an opportunity to those who voice other peoples' sensitive and distressing material, to tell their own stories in their own voices. Clients referred to in the stories, are all composite or fictionalised versions of clients to preserve their anonymity.
In 2015 we published our first anthology of interpreters’ stories: In Other Words. Our second anthology, In More Words, includes voices and stories from international interpreters. The interpreters, who have chosen to write in English, are from Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, India, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, Poland, Turkey, the UK, and the USA.  In More Words allows us to glimpse into their worlds.

In More Words is a fascinating collection of honest, beautiful stories.

Mothertongue multi-ethnic counselling service www.mothertongue.org.uk  has been running a dedicated Mental Health Interpreting Service, since 2009, as well as their clinical psychotherapy service. Mothertongue will be closing next year after nearly 2 decades of service. The knowledge and experience they have gained over that time will be continued and passed on by a small NGO called Pasalo: www.pasaloproject.org

This study investigates bi- and multilingual clients’ self-reported language practices in counselling and psychotherapy. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an international web survey inviting adults who had experienced one-to-one therapy to describe their experiences. Analysis of responses by 109 multilingual clients revealed that clients did not always have an opportunity to discuss their multilingualism with therapists, and for some this inhibited their language switching. Others were assertive in their language choices, or benefited from working with a therapist who was either bilingual or skilled at creating an inclusive linguistic environment. Very few reported two main therapy languages, while nearly two thirds of participants reported short code-switches. These happened occasionally within sessions and were typically linked to difficulties in translation, expressing emotion, accessing memories or quotation. Over a third of respondents used a second or additional language as their main therapy language, with nearly half of this group reporting that they never switched to their first language in sessions, despite some using it daily for inner speech. The implications for therapy and further research are discussed, including the role of the therapist in inviting the client's multiple languages into the therapeutic frame.

The present study investigates beliefs, attitudes and practices of 101 monolingual and multilingual therapists in their interactions with multilingual patients. We adopted a mixed-method approach, using an on-line questionnaire with 27 closed questions which were analysed quantitatively and informed questions in interviews with one monolingual and two multilingual therapists. A principal component analysis yielded a four-factor solution accounting for 41% of the variance. The first dimension, which explained 17% of variance, reflects therapists’ attunement towards their bilingual patients (i.e., attunement versus collusion). Further analysis showed that the 18 monolingual therapists differed significantly from their 83 bi- or multilingual peers on this dimension. The follow up interviews confirmed this result. Recommendations based on these findings are made for psychotherapy training and supervision to attend to a range of issues including: the psychological and therapeutic functions of multi/bilingualism; practice in making formulations in different languages; the creative therapeutic potential of the language gap.