26 The Linguist Vol/57 No/6 2018
ciol.org.uk/tl
OPINION & COMMENT
their families with longstanding psychological
or physical conditions? In my time as a
professional interpreter, I have felt like that
on many occasions. At a certain point, I
needed to take a break from interpreting. I
asked myself what I had done wrong to feel
that way. Was I not truly professional? Did I
need more training? Should I stop practising
community interpreting altogether?
A caring nature
Over a two-year period, I assisted five patients
diagnosed with cancer and their families. At
the same time, I was interpreting for a
teenage patient and family with complex
mental health issues. Only after taking a break
did I gain some perspective and the ability to
consider the predicament I found myself in.
I am an interpreter because I want to help
patients with limited English to communicate
with clinicians. I perceive myself as a caring
person. This comes with an openness, and a
willingness to listen and find a solution to a
problem if it is within my capacity to do so.
However, this two-year period came at a cost.
I learned that by listening to each patient's
story I was becoming part of their story. What
fed my empathy in turn caused me physical
and emotional stress. I started to notice pain
in my shoulders, I had headaches and
palpitations, and I felt emotionally exhausted. I
had experienced a similar physical reaction to
other people's suffering in the past, but this
was different. I was exposed to the patients'
suffering – and to the emotional pain of their
families – for a long time, and all of them died.
Preventing compassion fatigue
According to Adams, Matto and Harrington,
1
"Researchers have found that focusing on a
sense of accomplishment even when you
witness hardship that you can't 'fix' can help to
prevent compassion fatigue and negativity."
Accomplishment here has to be taken on a
How is the wellbeing of interpreters affected by vicarious
trauma and what can we do to mitigate the impact?
We are living in times of a deepened
awareness of mental health issues and what
constitutes a person's wellbeing. It is vitally
important that each of us in the interpreting
profession takes the responsibility to manage
stress effectively. Stress-related occupational
hazards that are specific to the helping
professions – of which community interpreting
is one – include compassion fatigue (i.e.
emotional and physical draining following
exposure to the suffering of service users) and
vicarious trauma, which affects the way we
perceive the world after repeated exposure
to traumatic material from service users.
How often do we leave an interpreting
session feeling tearful, helpless and anxious or
emotionally exhausted? How often do we feel
we can no longer interpret for patients and
Traumatic
exposure
RENATA TOWLSON
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SHUTTERSTOCK
