Psychotherapy across languages: beliefs, attitudes and practices of monolingual and multilingual therapists with their multilingual patients

The present study investigates beliefs, attitudes and practices of 101 monolingual and multilingual therapists in their interactions with multilingual patients. We adopted a mixed-method approach, using an on-line questionnaire with 27 closed questions which were analysed quantitatively and informed questions in interviews with one monolingual and two multilingual therapists. A principal component analysis yielded a four-factor solution accounting for 41% of the variance. The first dimension, which explained 17% of variance, reflects therapists’ attunement towards their bilingual patients (i.e., attunement versus collusion). Further analysis showed that the 18 monolingual therapists differed significantly from their 83 bi- or multilingual peers on this dimension. The follow up interviews confirmed this result. Recommendations based on these findings are made for psychotherapy training and supervision to attend to a range of issues including: the psychological and therapeutic functions of multi/bilingualism; practice in making formulations in different languages; the creative therapeutic potential of the language gap

Multilingual clients’ experience of psychotherapy

The present study focuses on the experiences of 182 multilingual clients who had been exposed to various therapeutic approaches in various countries. An on-line questionnaire was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The analysis of feedback from clients with multilingual therapists showed that clients use or initiate significantly more code-switching (CS) than their therapists, and that it typically occurs when the emotional tone is raised. Gender was unrelated to CS frequency. CS is used strategically when discussing episodes of trauma and shame, creating proximity or distance. CS allows clients to express themselves more fully to the therapist, adding depth and nuance to the therapy. The therapist’s multilingualism promotes empathy and clients’ own multilingualism constitutes an important aspect of their sense of self. Multilingual clients benefit from a therapeutic environment where multilingualism is appreciated, and where they can use CS

A cross-disciplinary and multi-method approach of multilingualism in psychotherapy

In this chapter Jean-Marc and Beverley will share their experiences of working with mixed methods in an under-researched area. As we shall see, her interest in larger sampling groups introduced her to some of the advantages of quantitative research. Together with Jean-Marc, who expands on the methods in detail in this chapter, Beverley was able to research multilingual therapy from several angles

Bilingual episodic memory: an introduction

Our current models of bilingual memory are essentially accounts of semantic memory whose goal is to explain bilingual lexical access to underlying imagistic and conceptual referents. While this research has included episodic memory, it has focused largely on recall for words, phrases, and sentences in the service of understanding the structure of semantic memory. Building on the four papers in this special issue, this article focuses on larger units of episodic memory(from quotidian events with simple narrative form to complex autobiographical memories) in service of developing a model of bilingual episodic memory. This requires integrating theory and research on how culture-specific narrative traditions inform encoding and retrieval with theory and research on the relation between(monolingual) semantic and episodic memory(Schank, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1995; Tulving, 2002). Then, taking a cue from memory-based text processing studies in psycholinguistics(McKoon & Ratcliff, 1998), we suggest that as language forms surface in the progressive retrieval of features of an event, they trigger further forms within the same language serving to guide a within-language/ within-culture retrieval

A bilingual emotional advantage? An investigation into the effects of psychological factors in emotion perception in Arabic and in English of Arabic-English bilinguals and Arabic /English monolinguals

Aims and objectives: While the debate on the cognitive bilingual advantage is ongoing, much less attention has been paid to a potential emotional advantage of bilinguals. The present study compared the performance of bilinguals and monolinguals in emotion perception (EP) in Arabic and in English and the differences in trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI). It also considered the relationship between Trait EI and EP scores. Methodology: 205 Arabic-English bilinguals, 71 Arabic monolinguals and 333 English monolinguals had to recognise anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise and happiness in twelve short audio-visual video clips (six in English and six in Arabic) embedded in an online questionnaire. The clips contained short conversations about day-to-day situations. Data and analysis: Nonparametric statistical analyses were used to explore the differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in EP in English and Arabic and to explore the relationship between Trait EI and EP. Findings: Bilinguals outperformed English monolinguals in the EP task in English but did not perform better than Arabic monolinguals in Arabic. Bilinguals scored higher on Trait EI than monolinguals, and Trait EI scores were significantly and positively correlated with EP scores. Originality: This study suggests that there is a small bilingual advantage for emotional and psychological domains. Significance: Bilingualism seems to have an effect on some personality dimensions and emotional skills

The relationship between bi/multilingualism, nativeness, proficiency and multimodal emotion recognition ability

Aims and Objectives: The primary aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual–vocal–verbal emotion recognition ability (ERA) and multilingualism – that is, both bilingual first language (L1) acquisition and the level of multilingualism operationalised as the number of languages one can speak. Besides these two factors, we also consider nativeness and proficiency as possible predictors of ERA. Methodology: One-thousand-two-hundred-and-twenty participants completed a survey online consisting of a sociobiographical background questionnaire, an English lexical test and an emotion recognition test including six stimuli. For each of the six audiovisual recordings, participants had to indicate which emotion they thought the L1 English speaker was conveying – happiness, sadness, anger, (positive) surprise, fear, disgust or no/neutral emotion. Data and Analysis: An individual ERA score was calculated for each participant. Correlations between ERA and the different variables were computed – including interactions – and significant correlations were fed into a linear regression model. Findings: The number of spoken languages was unrelated to ERA in our sample. The data revealed an interaction between BFLA and nativeness: bi/multilingually raised English second or foreign language (LX) users outperformed monolingually raised LX users, but bi/multilingually raised L1 users of English scored lower than monolingually raised L1 users. Proficiency was significantly related to ERA. Originality: This study points to a bilingual advantage in emotion recognition in English for participants with specific linguistic profiles. Participants who grew up with two languages from birth had an advantage if it did not include English. The advantage seemed to be cancelled out among bi/multilingually raised English L1 users, possibly due to interferences from their other L1(s) or L1 culture(s). Significance: This study contributes to the scarce literature on bilingual advantage in the affective domain and offers a nuanced view on bilingualism and ERA

Self-reported frequency of swearing in English: do situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables have similar effects on first and foreign language users?

An analysis of data collected from 2347 users of English on their self-reported swearing behaviour in English revealed significant higher values for the 1159 native English (L1) users than for the 1165 English foreign language (LX) users. Parallel analyses on the data of the L1 and LX users revealed that the interlocutor effect was slightly stronger among L1 users. Swearing was reported to be most frequent in interactions with friends, when alone, followed by interactions with family members, colleagues and strangers. Participants scoring high on Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism reported significantly more swearing in English. Extraversion and Neuroticism had the strongest effects on LX users’ self-reported swearing with friends and alone while Psychoticism and Neuroticism had the strongest effects on L1 users’ self-reported swearing with strangers and with friends. The effects of sociobiographical variables (education level, age group, gender) were broadly similar among L1 and LX users but were significant in more categories of interlocutors for the L1 users. It is argued that the weaker effect of situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables on self-reported frequency of swearing among LX users of English could be linked to larger heterogeneity in their history of learning, socialisation, proficiency and use of English

Multilingualism and psychotherapy: exploring multilingual clients' experiences of language practices in psychotherapy

This study investigates bi- and multilingual clients’ self-reported language practices in counselling and psychotherapy. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an international web survey inviting adults who had experienced one-to-one therapy to describe their experiences. Analysis of responses by 109 multilingual clients revealed that clients did not always have an opportunity to discuss their multilingualism with therapists, and for some this inhibited their language switching. Others were assertive in their language choices, or benefited from working with a therapist who was either bilingual or skilled at creating an inclusive linguistic environment. Very few reported two main therapy languages, while nearly two thirds of participants reported short code-switches. These happened occasionally within sessions and were typically linked to difficulties in translation, expressing emotion, accessing memories or quotation. Over a third of respondents used a second or additional language as their main therapy language, with nearly half of this group reporting that they never switched to their first language in sessions, despite some using it daily for inner speech. The implications for therapy and further research are discussed, including the role of the therapist in inviting the client's multiple languages into the therapeutic frame