Lost in translation: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of mental health professionals' experiences of empathy in clinical work with an interpreter

Abstract

The difficulties participants encountered in work with an interpreter highlight a need for training in cross-language empathy for interpreters and mental health professionals, and encourage the use of transcultural models of psychotherapy in work with non-English speaking service-users. Some of the difficulties associated with adopting traditional humanistic models of empathy, which tend to centralize the therapist within empathic processes, when working with interpreters are also discussed.