A Meeting of Languages: English-Based Trauma and Spanish Language Variations

Abstract

This chapter centers the author's identity as a bilingual psychotherapist serving Spanish-speaking Latinx clients who have survived intimate partner violence or sexual assault. This chapter challenges the idea that cultural competency with Latinx Spanish speakers is accomplished by providing services based on translation and interpretation from English to Spanish. Significant aspects of a client's Spanish language and sociopolitical and cultural experiences can be neglected in the process of translating and interpreting. This will be accomplished by considering a therapeutic relationship with bilingualism, specifically the Spanish language. The author discusses practices and thought processes that are incorporated into therapeutic work to shift away from traditional translation and interpretation practices. The author will share reflections and observations that have impacted efforts to create a psychotherapy process, particularly addressing experiences of trauma in relationship to Spanish language variations and sociopolitical and cultural realities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)