Language in the psychotherapeutic process and the bilingual hispanic psychotherapist's sense of identity

As the demand for bilingual psychotherapists rises, understanding the effects of language and bilingualism on psychotherapy becomes increasingly important. The literature, mostly focused on the client’s experience, suggests that the language used in the therapy room has an impact on the therapeutic process and relationship. This qualitative study explores the internal and interpersonal experiences of bilingual psychotherapists, adding to and deepening the pool of data about the impact of language in psychotherapy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Hispanic, Spanish-English bilingual, and psychodynamically-oriented psychotherapists. An ethnographically informed, modified grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss, 1990; McCracken, 1988) was used to analyze the data. Findings support previous research and personal accounts from psychotherapists in the literature. Most participants endorsed experiencing language-related identity differences, and a few also reported experiencing a reduction in the internal and interpersonal differences in each language over time. On average, participants indicated they felt more connected to their clients and to their emotions when they spoke in Spanish, and more professional, competent, and emotionally contained when they spoke in English. Additionally, participants reported that being trained and supervised in the language of practice improved their competency as clinicians and strengthened their ability to connect with their clients in therapy. These findings highlight the importance of increasing psychotherapists’ awareness of the impact of language on the therapeutic experience. The study also underscores the need to train and supervise psychotherapy students in the language of practice.Psy.D.Includes bibliographical reference