SECTION 3 Multilingualism as a therapeutic asset
- How multilingual people can feel they have a different identity and that they are able to express different emotions in each of their languages
- How later-learned languages can have a protective function when processing trauma
The video for this section can be found at https://vimeo.com/469794267
DISCUSSION
Valerie feels she is a different person; she has a past, present and future self in different languages.
Dr Sally Cook conducted research into the ways in which torture survivors’ language choices helped them in therapeutic contexts. Some of the people she interviewed used English to help them to change their lives, to shape their identities in a new way. They saw English (a later-learned language) as a way to enact their second chance. What are the therapeutic implications for this?
In the scene you just watched, Valerie also says that she can express some emotions in one language but not another (e.g. she can get angry in English but not in Chinese).
For Sally Cook’s interviewees the connection to or distance from emotions works both ways. It may be that in English someone feels stuck and limited. The word “sad”, for instance, may not be sufficient to express how an individual feels in their own language. For one participant, the distance that English gives him helps him to tell his story: “In English you don’t feel it - it doesn’t hit you.” English becomes his place of safety from which he can explore his experiences.
Valerie feels she is a different person; she has a past, present and future self in different languages.
Dr Sally Cook conducted research into the ways in which torture survivors’ language choices helped them in therapeutic contexts. Some of the people she interviewed used English to help them to change their lives, to shape their identities in a new way. They saw English (a later-learned language) as a way to enact their second chance. What are the therapeutic implications for this?
In the scene you just watched, Valerie also says that she can express some emotions in one language but not another (e.g. she can get angry in English but not in Chinese).
For Sally Cook’s interviewees the connection to or distance from emotions works both ways. It may be that in English someone feels stuck and limited. The word “sad”, for instance, may not be sufficient to express how an individual feels in their own language. For one participant, the distance that English gives him helps him to tell his story: “In English you don’t feel it - it doesn’t hit you.” English becomes his place of safety from which he can explore his experiences.
Exercise
- How might you adapt your practice to incorporate the multilingual dimension into the expression of feelings?
- How might you work with a client who says they cannot verbally express love in their language?
Furthermore, if a client has fallen in love with someone of whom their family would disapprove, it may feel taboo to use words of love in their home language.
It’s like shocking or something it’s quite difficult like … it’s kind of easier for me to express myself, my love towards someone in English.
Cook, S. (2020) The impact and functions of a later learned language on survivors of torture in the context of a therapeutic community. PhD dissertation.
It’s like shocking or something it’s quite difficult like … it’s kind of easier for me to express myself, my love towards someone in English.
Cook, S. (2020) The impact and functions of a later learned language on survivors of torture in the context of a therapeutic community. PhD dissertation.
EXTENSION using Other Tongues
Read p. 19 about identity-formation and sense of belonging.
What do you think about Priska Imberti’s statement about how she achieved an inner connectedness with the new culture when she moved to New York from Argentina?
Read p. 19 about identity-formation and sense of belonging.
What do you think about Priska Imberti’s statement about how she achieved an inner connectedness with the new culture when she moved to New York from Argentina?
Last modified: Thursday, 28 January 2021, 1:18 PM