by Cynthia M. Braden, MFT
How difficult is it to achieve a level of proficiency in Spanish to enable you to confidently treat Spanish-speaking psychotherapy clients? Here are 5 Tips to Help.
1. Relax
Yes, it is true that clients from Latin America talk fast... and that different countries have different accents, idioms and vocabulary meanings. This can create challenging conditions for the therapist in terms of comprehension. If you get too focused in the initial sessions on asking questions or giving interpretations when you don't understand completely, this puts a great language burden on you, and you may feel stressed out and not up to it linguistically. You don't have the vocabulary and syntax ready on the tip of your tongue. It's not natural. So to make it more natural, it can be as simple a matter as rote memorization for numerous important communications. Please excuse the effrontery, no offense intended, but if you're feeling overly stressed out when communicating with Spanish-speaking clients, you are probably talking too much! You can turn the focus of the session to a person-centered and open-ended style so you are not working harder than the client. You may have to be a little more patient, but you will gather the information you need to start implementing therapeutic interventions. Meanwhile the client will have a chance to 'Desahogarse' and in doing so, truly let you know what the presenting problems are and what the client has tried so far to fix them.
Let the client talk for a long while and don't get too worried if you're at 60% comprehension. You will get the gist and the context of the problem to get started. If, after you have listened for awhile (15 mins) you're still not getting it, here is a free video, Repeat & Clarify with statements that will get the client to repeat and rephrase what they are communicating to you so you can make sure you understand the whole picture and pick up on red flags and treatment considerations. Clients are always appreciative when 'gringos' care enough to make themselves able to communicate, so you can relax in knowing that hispanic clients appreciate you, and don't judge you if you make mistakes in grammar.
2. Know Your Numbers
It may seem boring, redundant or non-clinical to spend a lot of time studying numbers, but a strong command of numerical concepts is essential for Spanish-speaking therapists. Think of all the ways we use numbers in therapy: appointment times and dates, cost of therapy, discounts and co-pays, dates of birth and other milestones, ages, addresses, phone numbers, etc. We have prepared a module to make it easy for you to practice numbers within the context of psychotherapy.
3. Practice Vocabulary
For this part, there is no magic, you will have to memorize lists of words and conjugations of most-used verbs. To develop your own style, we recommend noticing what types of things you often say to your English speaking clients and start writing them down and translating into Spanish. Make it your intention to look up words that you frequently use with your clients in English and create a lexicon for yourself. Start to really get that vocabulary under your belt.
4. Prepare
If you study and are ready with your lexicon, you will feel prepared to handle most clinical situations. If you have your own common therapist statements ready on the tip of your tongue, you know those statements will be correct and professional because you have practiced. You will feel confident as you notice the comprehension appear in your client's countenance. You won't be fumbling around talking while observing the confused or bemused look on your client's face. Oops! When that happens you know you haven't hit the mark. You can conduct your sessions professionally in Spanish as well as English by preparing. You already know how to be a therapist and implement therapeutic interventions. To add the Spanish speaking clients, you are adding one more layer of specialty to your skills. And it's a very specific layer. Give yourself a break as you are not putting pressure on yourself to become completely bilingual, but developing proficiency as a Spanish-speaking therapist. So you do have to memorize but it's a relatively narrow focus.
5. Same But Different
It is true that Spanish-speaking clients from different countries are going to express themselves somewhat differently in terms of vocabulary, speed, slang, idiomatic expressions and cultural manifestations. This would also be true of people speaking the same language, but from a different socio-economic status, region or ethnicity within the same language group. We could make the analogy that the language differences among Spanish-speaking countries might be like the idiosyncrasies in the speech of English-speaking persons from South Carolina versus Boston, Britain vs. Belize. It's all going to be English. We are often asked about learning Spanish from a particular country. The correct Spanish is going to be the same in any Spanish speaking country whether you are in Spain or Honduras, Mexico or Chile. The differences occur in word selection, pronunciation, accent, speed, usage and sometimes verb conjugations.
Yes, it is true that clients from Latin America talk fast... and that different countries have different accents, idioms and vocabulary meanings. This can create challenging conditions for the therapist in terms of comprehension. If you get too focused in the initial sessions on asking questions or giving interpretations when you don't understand completely, this puts a great language burden on you, and you may feel stressed out and not up to it linguistically. You don't have the vocabulary and syntax ready on the tip of your tongue. It's not natural. So to make it more natural, it can be as simple a matter as rote memorization for numerous important communications. Please excuse the effrontery, no offense intended, but if you're feeling overly stressed out when communicating with Spanish-speaking clients, you are probably talking too much! You can turn the focus of the session to a person-centered and open-ended style so you are not working harder than the client. You may have to be a little more patient, but you will gather the information you need to start implementing therapeutic interventions. Meanwhile the client will have a chance to 'Desahogarse' and in doing so, truly let you know what the presenting problems are and what the client has tried so far to fix them.
Let the client talk for a long while and don't get too worried if you're at 60% comprehension. You will get the gist and the context of the problem to get started. If, after you have listened for awhile (15 mins) you're still not getting it, here is a free video, Repeat & Clarify with statements that will get the client to repeat and rephrase what they are communicating to you so you can make sure you understand the whole picture and pick up on red flags and treatment considerations. Clients are always appreciative when 'gringos' care enough to make themselves able to communicate, so you can relax in knowing that hispanic clients appreciate you, and don't judge you if you make mistakes in grammar.
2. Know Your Numbers
It may seem boring, redundant or non-clinical to spend a lot of time studying numbers, but a strong command of numerical concepts is essential for Spanish-speaking therapists. Think of all the ways we use numbers in therapy: appointment times and dates, cost of therapy, discounts and co-pays, dates of birth and other milestones, ages, addresses, phone numbers, etc. We have prepared a module to make it easy for you to practice numbers within the context of psychotherapy.
3. Practice Vocabulary
For this part, there is no magic, you will have to memorize lists of words and conjugations of most-used verbs. To develop your own style, we recommend noticing what types of things you often say to your English speaking clients and start writing them down and translating into Spanish. Make it your intention to look up words that you frequently use with your clients in English and create a lexicon for yourself. Start to really get that vocabulary under your belt.
4. Prepare
If you study and are ready with your lexicon, you will feel prepared to handle most clinical situations. If you have your own common therapist statements ready on the tip of your tongue, you know those statements will be correct and professional because you have practiced. You will feel confident as you notice the comprehension appear in your client's countenance. You won't be fumbling around talking while observing the confused or bemused look on your client's face. Oops! When that happens you know you haven't hit the mark. You can conduct your sessions professionally in Spanish as well as English by preparing. You already know how to be a therapist and implement therapeutic interventions. To add the Spanish speaking clients, you are adding one more layer of specialty to your skills. And it's a very specific layer. Give yourself a break as you are not putting pressure on yourself to become completely bilingual, but developing proficiency as a Spanish-speaking therapist. So you do have to memorize but it's a relatively narrow focus.
5. Same But Different
It is true that Spanish-speaking clients from different countries are going to express themselves somewhat differently in terms of vocabulary, speed, slang, idiomatic expressions and cultural manifestations. This would also be true of people speaking the same language, but from a different socio-economic status, region or ethnicity within the same language group. We could make the analogy that the language differences among Spanish-speaking countries might be like the idiosyncrasies in the speech of English-speaking persons from South Carolina versus Boston, Britain vs. Belize. It's all going to be English. We are often asked about learning Spanish from a particular country. The correct Spanish is going to be the same in any Spanish speaking country whether you are in Spain or Honduras, Mexico or Chile. The differences occur in word selection, pronunciation, accent, speed, usage and sometimes verb conjugations.
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