Working with Interpreters Training

Patients, whose first language is not English, are often doubly disadvantaged by their reliance on others to provide their voice and to mediate their communication. How can mental health practitioners ensure that they are able to work effectively with appropriate interpreters in their practice?

The interactive half-day’s training includes the following:

· Working effectively with an interpreter.

· Issues of power and safety in a ‘triad’ - boundaries, communication, power dynamics and relationships with patient, interpreter and interpreting agency

· Maintaining clinical authority when you don’t understand the language(s) spoken in the room.

· Dealing effectively with interpreting agencies.

· Managing time pressures.

Throughout the workshop amalgamated written and filmed case examples, as well as findings from research, will provide illustrations and promote discussion.

Dr.Beverley Costa, a psychotherapist, set up Mothertongue multi-ethnic counselling service in 2000 and the Mental Health Interpreting project in 2009, and she founded The Pásalo Project in 2017 www.pasaloproject.org to disseminate the learning from nearly two decades of Mothertongue’s service. She is a Senior Practitioner Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of Reading.