A Conversation Analytic Study of Interpreter-Mediated Systemic Therapy: What Makes It Work?

For this paper, we use the methods of conversation analysis to examine video-recorded sessions of interpreter-mediated psychotherapy (IMP) involving a female systemic therapist, a male interpreter, and an Arabic-speaking male refugee. We analyze how all conversational participants shape and negotiate the therapeutic interaction-as essential building blocks of the dialogical therapeutic relationship-and what verbal and nonverbal communicative means they use in the process. We present examples of three different conversational practices in IMP, oriented to doing systemic work: Interpreter renderings of systemic interventions; Maintaining affiliation with the client in the absence of verbal engagement; and the interpreter co-driving the therapeutic project forward. The identification of systemic practices that build working alliance in this mediated transcultural setting is crucial for understanding how IMP sessions may work productively for systemic trauma therapy. Implications for systemic practice and training are discussed.