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Aim or purpose

The aim is to add to the body of knowledge regarding barriers and facilitators where therapists are bi or multilingual to aid counsellors’ self-awareness and choice range of interventions and expertise in a multi-lingual context. The study examines the self-concept of bi and multilingual counsellors and of the impact language has in their practice.ÌýÌý

Design and methodology

This is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews interviewing 4 counsellors from the Czech Republic, Korea, Germany and Italy who have UK qualifications and came to the UK as adults. Participants come from random geographic areas and have never met.Ìý

Results and findings

Counsellor self concept

• bilingual people have a sense of duality
• release from previous cultural norms giving more freedom of expression in English
• some words and phrases that cannot be translated
• most research subjects reported remembering things nonverbally
• cultural and historical influences
• third space; not fully belonging to either group as time progressesÌý

Counselling

• authenticity
• focus on the essence of a person or emotion rather than words
  
• communication
• awareness, empathy and the and therapeutic allianceÌý
• boundaries
• supervision

Research limitations

Though saturation was reached a larger sample size would have been more definitive and potentially given access to a wider range of languages. The Italian participant gave some anomalies in the data which would have been interesting to follow up if there was more time by interviewing more Italian counsellors to see if it was personality, age or culture that made the difference.Ìý

Key texts

Costa, B. (2014). Counselling in many tongues. Therapy Today, Volume 25 Issue 4. Available at /bacp-journals/therapy-today/2014/may-2014/articles/counselling-in-many-tongues/ Accessed 18 January 2021Ìý

Costa, B. Dewaele, J. (2012) Psychotherapy across languages: beliefs, attitudes and practices of monolingual and multilingual; therapists with multilingual patients. Language and Psychoanalysis 1:19-41 (reprinted in Counselling and Psychotherapy research 2012: 14(3): 235-244.Ìý

Diakonova-Curtis, D. (2016). Bilingualism as a tool in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy Bulletin, 51(4), 38-42. Available at https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/bilingualism-as-a-tool-in-psychotherapy/ accessed 25-11-21Ìý

Joseph, J. (2004). Language and identity: National, ethnic, religious. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacmillanÌý

Lago, C and Christodoulidi, (2013). Client-therapist diversity: aspiring towards relational depth. In Knox, R. Murphy, D, Wiggins, S. Cooper, M. (2013) Relational depth: New perspectives and developments. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan p114-124ÌýÌý

Lago, C. Hirai, T (2013). Counselling across difference and diversity. In Cooper, M. O’Hara, M. Schmid. Bohart, A. (ed). The Handbook of Person -Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling, second edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan p436-452Ìý

Foster, R. (1996) the bilingual self duet in two voices. Psychoanalytic Dialogues: the international Journal of Relational Perspectives, 6(1), 99-1321. doi.10.80/10481889609539109Ìý

Marian V, Kaushanskaya M. (2005) Autobiographical memory and language in bicultural bilinguals. In: Cohen J, McAlister K, Rolstad K, MacSwan J (eds). Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, 2003. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla PressÌý

Sixtus,F. Wesche, J. Kerschreiter, R. (2019). Identity Multiplicity, National Group Contact, and Acculturation: The Role of Identity-Related Cognitions. Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 75, No. 2, 2019, pp. 486—514 doi: 10.1111/josi.12325 Accessed November 2021Ìý