The Bilingual Forum was established in 2010. It meets twice a year online or in London. There is no charge for attendance at the Forum. If you wish to be added to the mailing list for the Forum, please email: [email protected]
Latest Bilingual Forum 2024/2025 on the theme of Reflective Practice Support Groups
Reflective Practice Support Groups for minoritised issues in practice – our example The multilingual experience.
The online Bilingual Forum event on Friday, February 28th, 2025 - 12.30pm to 2pm UK time follows on from the in-person event in London (November 2024). This event demonstrated two facilitated Reflective Practice Groups for interpreters and therapists.
At the online event on February 28th Roxana Parra Sepulveda* and Beverley Costa will give a short presentation about RPSGs in the context of multilingualism. They will share some ideas, relevant theoretical concepts, examples of the challenges and benefits, and results of an evaluation of this type of group. A link to the online event will be sent nearer the time.
*Roxana has developed her international psychotherapy practice since 1999, working in the United Kingdom, Spain and Chile. She specializes in trauma and has managed specialist therapy services in the community and higher education sectors. Roxana has written therapeutic guides, collaborated in research and contributed to published books. She is the creator and host of Mind Your Mind, a podcast that supports health and community care professionals in preventing secondary trauma. She provides reflective practice groups in her private practice.
With support from Awards for All, England.
Earlier Bilingual Forum events
This Bilingual Forum event consists of a linked pair of meetings which focus on the multilingual therapeutic frame for therapeutic practice - working across languages with and without an interpreter.
The first meeting November 25th, 2024 (2pm to 4pm) in-person, in central London. A demonstration of two context-specific (multilingual therapeutic frame) Reflective Practice Support Group sessions – one for therapists which interpreters can observe, and one for interpreters which therapists can observe.
The second linked meeting will be held online in 2025. To receive further information, please join the mailing list of the Bilingual Forum by emailing: beverley@pasaloproject.org With support from Awards for All, England (The National Lottery).
Bilingual Forum and launch of new film online March 18th, 2024 from 4pm to 6pm UK time
This Bilingual Forum event will begin with a presentation on Machine Interpreting in the context of psychological therapies, health and social care by Sabine Braun, Professor of Translation Studies, Director of the Centre for Translation Studies, and Co-Director (FASS) of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence at the University of Surrey and Constantin Orasan, Professor of Language and Translation Technologies at the Centre of Translation Studies, University of Surrey.
The presentation will be followed by the launch of the film A Doctor in Translation which dramatises a telephone conversation between a GP and her Practice Manager. The conversation is about a safeguarding dilemma in an interpreter-mediated consultation.
Our two meetings earlier in 2023 took place in February and April. There will be another event in December.
1. The first meeting was held online: Thursday, February 9th from 5pm to 6pm UK time when Natasha Nascimento talked about her doctoral research on Multilingualism and Family Therapy.
Exploration of children’s, interpreters' and group members' voices and position in multilingual multi-family groups
Dr Natasha Nascimento is a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist at the Anna Freud Centre, working in the Family Trauma Team. Dr Nascimento has worked in the NHS for over 16 years in CAMHS. Her doctorate research was on ‘Group Cohesion in Multifamily Therapy with Multilingual Families’.
2. The second date was for an in-person session on the topic of Language and Trauma. This took place in Bloomsbury, London at Birkbeck, University of London on Wednesday, April 12th from 2pm to 4pm. We were very fortunate to be able to extend our welcome to Professor Brigitta Busch and Prof. Dr. Judith Purkarthofer who gave the presentations on Language and Trauma followed by a question and answer session.
Bilingual Therapist & Interpreter Forum
Language and Trauma
Wednesday April 12th 2023
14:00 to 16:00
Room B18, Birkbeck, University of London Malet St, London WC1E 7HX https://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps
Visualizing linguistic repertoires: Working with Language Portraits in trauma-informed counselling and psychotherapy
Different communicative resources (languages, sociolects, regiolects, family idioms…) that are connected to lived experience and therefore emotionally loaded constitute what we call the linguistic repertoire. The drawing of Language Portraits helps to reflect upon the repertoire and its biographic ramifications beyond habitualized discursive patterns. This can have therapeutic benefits for clients and patients who are able to use their linguistic repertoire for repair and healing.
Brigitta Busch is an applied linguist. She works and teaches at Vienna University and is also affiliated to Stellenbosch University (South Africa). In 2012 she was granted a Berta-Karlik research professorship for excellent female scientists by the University of Vienna. She has also been working for many years as an expert for the Council of Europe’s Confidence-Building Measures Programme and was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Judith Purkarthofer works in multilingualism studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Her focus is on multilingual families and lived experience of language across the lifespan. She employs and discusses approaches that allow an understanding of children’s and adults’ voices in research, most recently in Speaking Subjects in Multilingualism Research: Biographical and Speaker-centred Approaches (edited by Judith Purkarthofer & Mi-Cha Flubacher, 2022 at Multilingual Matters).
On July 7th, 2022, we held the 23rd Bilingual Forum for Therapists and Mental Health Interpreters with the theme The aftermath for interpreters in highly demanding emotional situations.
This was the introduction to the Forum meeting:
This event tells a story. It begins with the experience of interpreters and the aftermath from their work on their professional and their personal lives. It ends with an account of effectively addressing this aftermath.
The following texts are some of the presentations which told the story.
If you have any comments or questions, please email: [email protected]
presentation_1.doc
presentation_2.docx
presentation_3.docx
presentation_4.docx
Previous Bilingual Forum meetings
Bilingual Forum Thursday November 18th, 2021 (5pm to 6.30pm UK time)
"The Multilingual Experience of Children and Young People" Perspectives from Clinical Psychology and Speech and Language Therapy
Bilingual Forum Tuesday April 13th, 2021
“The languages we use and the languages we lose – implications for psychological therapies”
Language loss across generations Dr Susan Samata, author of the Cultural Memory of Language Susan’s current research interests are in the role of language loss, or attrition, as part of a wider ecology of language.
Negotiating the language(s) for psychotherapy talk Dr Louise Rolland, Associate Research Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London Louise currently lectures on bilingualism at the University of Greenwich.
Bilingual Forum, November 25th, 2020
Adam Schoem (University of Alcalá) gave a presentation from his research: "The Importance of Self-care and Mental Health Education for Interpreters"
Adam shared the results of his research project, and discussed different aspects of work stress, self-care, and methods of learning about self-care for interpreters.
Bilingual Forum 16th June 2020
Languages of survival and pain - how do torture survivors speak of the unspeakable?
The Forum session on Tuesday, 16th June, focused on the linguistic issues for torture survivors and the implications for mental health practice.
First, a presentation and interview with Dr Sally Cook about her research on the language choices of torture survivors within a therapeutic community. In the second part, an interview with Nathalie Talbot, an interpreter with many years of experience interpreting for survivors of torture.
Bilingual Forum for Therapists and Mental Health Interpreters
A National Forum for Bilingual Therapists and Mental Health Interpreters was established in 2010 to share learning and improve standards and practice. The Forum provides a space for ideas, experience, learning and good practice across languages to be shared and to offer a source of support and a network of supervision in a variety of languages.
The Forum meetings focus on a range of issues including:
Latest Bilingual Forum 2024/2025 on the theme of Reflective Practice Support Groups
Reflective Practice Support Groups for minoritised issues in practice – our example The multilingual experience.
The online Bilingual Forum event on Friday, February 28th, 2025 - 12.30pm to 2pm UK time follows on from the in-person event in London (November 2024). This event demonstrated two facilitated Reflective Practice Groups for interpreters and therapists.
At the online event on February 28th Roxana Parra Sepulveda* and Beverley Costa will give a short presentation about RPSGs in the context of multilingualism. They will share some ideas, relevant theoretical concepts, examples of the challenges and benefits, and results of an evaluation of this type of group. A link to the online event will be sent nearer the time.
*Roxana has developed her international psychotherapy practice since 1999, working in the United Kingdom, Spain and Chile. She specializes in trauma and has managed specialist therapy services in the community and higher education sectors. Roxana has written therapeutic guides, collaborated in research and contributed to published books. She is the creator and host of Mind Your Mind, a podcast that supports health and community care professionals in preventing secondary trauma. She provides reflective practice groups in her private practice.
With support from Awards for All, England.
Earlier Bilingual Forum events
This Bilingual Forum event consists of a linked pair of meetings which focus on the multilingual therapeutic frame for therapeutic practice - working across languages with and without an interpreter.
The first meeting November 25th, 2024 (2pm to 4pm) in-person, in central London. A demonstration of two context-specific (multilingual therapeutic frame) Reflective Practice Support Group sessions – one for therapists which interpreters can observe, and one for interpreters which therapists can observe.
The second linked meeting will be held online in 2025. To receive further information, please join the mailing list of the Bilingual Forum by emailing: beverley@pasaloproject.org With support from Awards for All, England (The National Lottery).
Bilingual Forum and launch of new film online March 18th, 2024 from 4pm to 6pm UK time
This Bilingual Forum event will begin with a presentation on Machine Interpreting in the context of psychological therapies, health and social care by Sabine Braun, Professor of Translation Studies, Director of the Centre for Translation Studies, and Co-Director (FASS) of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence at the University of Surrey and Constantin Orasan, Professor of Language and Translation Technologies at the Centre of Translation Studies, University of Surrey.
The presentation will be followed by the launch of the film A Doctor in Translation which dramatises a telephone conversation between a GP and her Practice Manager. The conversation is about a safeguarding dilemma in an interpreter-mediated consultation.
Our two meetings earlier in 2023 took place in February and April. There will be another event in December.
1. The first meeting was held online: Thursday, February 9th from 5pm to 6pm UK time when Natasha Nascimento talked about her doctoral research on Multilingualism and Family Therapy.
Exploration of children’s, interpreters' and group members' voices and position in multilingual multi-family groups
Dr Natasha Nascimento is a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist at the Anna Freud Centre, working in the Family Trauma Team. Dr Nascimento has worked in the NHS for over 16 years in CAMHS. Her doctorate research was on ‘Group Cohesion in Multifamily Therapy with Multilingual Families’.
2. The second date was for an in-person session on the topic of Language and Trauma. This took place in Bloomsbury, London at Birkbeck, University of London on Wednesday, April 12th from 2pm to 4pm. We were very fortunate to be able to extend our welcome to Professor Brigitta Busch and Prof. Dr. Judith Purkarthofer who gave the presentations on Language and Trauma followed by a question and answer session.
Bilingual Therapist & Interpreter Forum
Language and Trauma
Wednesday April 12th 2023
14:00 to 16:00
Room B18, Birkbeck, University of London Malet St, London WC1E 7HX https://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps
Visualizing linguistic repertoires: Working with Language Portraits in trauma-informed counselling and psychotherapy
Different communicative resources (languages, sociolects, regiolects, family idioms…) that are connected to lived experience and therefore emotionally loaded constitute what we call the linguistic repertoire. The drawing of Language Portraits helps to reflect upon the repertoire and its biographic ramifications beyond habitualized discursive patterns. This can have therapeutic benefits for clients and patients who are able to use their linguistic repertoire for repair and healing.
Brigitta Busch is an applied linguist. She works and teaches at Vienna University and is also affiliated to Stellenbosch University (South Africa). In 2012 she was granted a Berta-Karlik research professorship for excellent female scientists by the University of Vienna. She has also been working for many years as an expert for the Council of Europe’s Confidence-Building Measures Programme and was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Judith Purkarthofer works in multilingualism studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Her focus is on multilingual families and lived experience of language across the lifespan. She employs and discusses approaches that allow an understanding of children’s and adults’ voices in research, most recently in Speaking Subjects in Multilingualism Research: Biographical and Speaker-centred Approaches (edited by Judith Purkarthofer & Mi-Cha Flubacher, 2022 at Multilingual Matters).
On July 7th, 2022, we held the 23rd Bilingual Forum for Therapists and Mental Health Interpreters with the theme The aftermath for interpreters in highly demanding emotional situations.
This was the introduction to the Forum meeting:
This event tells a story. It begins with the experience of interpreters and the aftermath from their work on their professional and their personal lives. It ends with an account of effectively addressing this aftermath.
The following texts are some of the presentations which told the story.
- An account from an interpreter called Guida Shields about how the work, interpreting in a Child Protection context, has an impact on her.
- A description by Irina Norton and Beverley Costa of an initiative to support interpreters and a project to train interpreters to facilitate this type of support themselves.
- An account from an interpreter called Marina Burgess who participated in training to become an interpreter-facilitator.
- The experiences of an interpreter called Zora Jackman who, after finishing the training, went on to deliver support to groups of interpreters herself.
If you have any comments or questions, please email: [email protected]
presentation_1.doc
presentation_2.docx
presentation_3.docx
presentation_4.docx
Previous Bilingual Forum meetings
Bilingual Forum Thursday November 18th, 2021 (5pm to 6.30pm UK time)
"The Multilingual Experience of Children and Young People" Perspectives from Clinical Psychology and Speech and Language Therapy
Bilingual Forum Tuesday April 13th, 2021
“The languages we use and the languages we lose – implications for psychological therapies”
Language loss across generations Dr Susan Samata, author of the Cultural Memory of Language Susan’s current research interests are in the role of language loss, or attrition, as part of a wider ecology of language.
Negotiating the language(s) for psychotherapy talk Dr Louise Rolland, Associate Research Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London Louise currently lectures on bilingualism at the University of Greenwich.
Bilingual Forum, November 25th, 2020
Adam Schoem (University of Alcalá) gave a presentation from his research: "The Importance of Self-care and Mental Health Education for Interpreters"
Adam shared the results of his research project, and discussed different aspects of work stress, self-care, and methods of learning about self-care for interpreters.
Bilingual Forum 16th June 2020
Languages of survival and pain - how do torture survivors speak of the unspeakable?
The Forum session on Tuesday, 16th June, focused on the linguistic issues for torture survivors and the implications for mental health practice.
First, a presentation and interview with Dr Sally Cook about her research on the language choices of torture survivors within a therapeutic community. In the second part, an interview with Nathalie Talbot, an interpreter with many years of experience interpreting for survivors of torture.
Bilingual Forum for Therapists and Mental Health Interpreters
A National Forum for Bilingual Therapists and Mental Health Interpreters was established in 2010 to share learning and improve standards and practice. The Forum provides a space for ideas, experience, learning and good practice across languages to be shared and to offer a source of support and a network of supervision in a variety of languages.
The Forum meetings focus on a range of issues including:
- Language switching and its meaning
- Languages in which trauma is experienced and in which trauma is recalled
- The possibility of expressing different and additional emotions in different languages
- The interpreter’s role in the therapeutic alliance
- Language as a transitional object
- Language, communication and power
- People’s identities and relationships with different languages