Training interpreters and clinician dyads for psychotherapy a mixed method study

Unfortunately, at a global level there are a limited number of bilingual practitioners in behavioral health settings. While the use of interpreters provides one avenue for mitigating this treatment provider gap, training options for interpreters for psychotherapy is limited. One potential practice innovation that can help reduce the treatment provider gap is the development of practical, easy to implement training options. This study used mixed methods to evaluate a didactic training protocol paired with weekly clinical team meetings for interpreter and clinician dyads with the broader aim of identifying how training could be improved. Participants were seven master's level therapists and five Latinx interpreters. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, an interpreter/clinician questionnaire, and participated in two separate focus groups. Qualitative analyses revealed that interpreters and clinicians found the training helpful. However, both parties reported encountering several obstacles while delivering services as an interpreter-clinician dyad. Overall, our findings support that didactic training is requisite for both interpreters and clinicians. Suggested areas for training improvement included: 1) training on how to guide pre- and de-briefing; 2) conducting mock therapy sessions and role-playing; 3) and receiving guidance for how to manage out of session contact with the client. The results from this study contribute to the general field of behavioral health as guidelines for working with individuals with who do not speak the host country's language are needed given the limited number of bilingual practitioners in behavioral health settings.