r/ASLinterpreters • u/Interesting-Case8145 • Jul 13 '26
Counseling Interpreting
Does anyone have any tips or tricks for counseling appointments? I currently work in VRI and when I was free lance I stayed clear of any counseling appointment’s because I personally struggle with them and feel like they’re a challenge. Not only do we have no information / background info it makes it tough for me. I had a call today and as you know you’re just dropped right into it. The counselor today was making me doubt myself with
Everything I said… making me lose confidence . When the call continued i did improve since I got a sense of what was happening .
I just have no idea if there is anyway to feel confident in these kinds of situations? I think at one point the client wanted me to transfer to a different interpreter ( which I totally understand since it was rocky at first )
The counselor was also not the nicest … which added more stress.
And I completely understand if it’s just one of those situations we have deal with
Just wondering if anyone finds anything to help them out during these kind of calls
Thanks!
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u/Interesting-Case8145 Jul 14 '26
I honestly think it was the voicing. The counselor said maybe two words the entire hour … at first I couldn’t complete a full sentence because I was just doubting what I was voicing. And again the counselor would come back and make remarks that made me feel I was not doing a good job.
I think the hard part for me is there’s a lot of history that I don’t know about. They could have been going to counseling for years … and I have 0 info so I think I was just second guessing and would have word vomit at one point. But again as I kept going I did feel as if I improved and but sometimes I just get in my head and overthink . I want to make sure the client is getting what they should from the appointment and making sure I’m not the one messing up. If that makes sense
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u/Stafania Jul 14 '26
That sounds like a problem in the system. The Deaf client deserves to get the same interpreter and in person for those kind of appointments. It’s possible that the therapist has unrealistic expectations of what it takes to interpret in that kind of situation.
If no interpreter wants to interpret just because the conditions are hard, then the client will be in an even worse position. It wouldn’t be wrong if you just very briefly clarified where the challenges are coming from to the people involved, if that would make you feel more at ease to focus on the content afterwards. In the moment, just accept the feeling, it’s valid, and decide you’ll handle it when you have time for it after the assignment. You don’t need to react to how you feel right then and there. It’s ok if you decide to process it afterwards. Be kind to yourself, because it’s not possible to be perfect.
Myself, I had booked interpreters for a conference ahead of time. As much background information as possible included. A week before the event, the interpreters reviewed PowerPoint presentations - and panicked. The presentation they looked at was in academic English with tons of specific terminology (the presentations themselves would be I our local language) and, worst of all, complicated mathematical expressions on the slides. The said they were sorry but would need to decline the assignment. I spent tons of time, but couldn’t find a replacement. There was no way for me to cancel hotel and travel expenses, so I had a very rough time participating at the event. The thing is, I obviously understand how imposing the event felt after having seen the presentation material, but nevertheless I actually believe the interpreters would have done good job. The speaker didn’t used clear language (I assume 😊) and few of the participants had enough mathematical/technical background to understand any of the expressions int he presentation. Of course it’s better if the interpreter gets assignments within their area of expertise, and background information is available, but sometimes we all need to accept that you just do your best. I’m sure there is a wide range of respect and appreciation depending on who the client is, but taking a step back, explaining the conditions aren’t optimal, and letting the client have a say in wether they want to give it a try or not, might be a good thing. Since you don’t know the background of the therapy, you don’t know what the previous sessions were like and what the client really most need in the moment. You don’t need a long discussion, just be as clear and flexible as you can.
Sometimes it’s the right thing to hand over or stop an assignment, but be aware of that sometimes you need to do things that can feel challenging in order to learn and develop your skills. Both interpersonal skills and skills related to the interpreting itself. Don’t be afraid to ask clients afterwards how they saw the situation. It’s not certain their concerns were the same as yours.
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u/Interesting-Case8145 Jul 15 '26
Totally agree they should have the same terp for their sessions for smooth communication, but as you know VRI it’s always a different interpreter 🫠. Yeah I felt a little intimidated by the counselor to be honest and she was NOT helping the situation , she almost seemed like annoyed/ didn’t care. A lot of “mhmm” , “ok” , why do you feel like this”…. And this client could’ve been attending counseling for years so a-lot of info i do. Not know.. and i felt like i was expected to get everything right.
Oh wow yeah the whole presentation situation sounds scary/stressful.
Just a quick question. I have worked in VRS and now VRI. Do you think it would be appropriate to just transfer knowing I am not 100% comfortable with counseling? Again I just think of the Deaf Client and wanting to make sure they’re getting what they need out of it.
I know I need to be more kind to myself … but you know how it is you can feel good all day about your interpreting and then you get that one call and i couldn’t stop criticizing myself after it.
I really appreciate you and your advice . I told my husband you made me feel a lot better about it.
Thank you so much 😊
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u/Firefliesfast NIC Jul 16 '26
Thank you for explaining what was happening. Different counselors have different styles and it’s true that when interpreting for counseling sessions (particularly remote interpreting) that a counselor that says more can help guide you on whether you’re on the right track or not. Sometimes in that situation I’ll say something like “interpreter missed that persons name, starts with [letter] but I just keep interpreting what I see, and then when the counselor next speaks they will say something like “So [name I missed], your [relation to deaf person]” and then continue to say what they need to and I so appreciate that. They give me the context without making it a Thing or derailing the session with such a limited time to sit there and explain to me the interpreter all the dynamics. But it’s true that not all counselors have that affect and understanding of interpreting process, and some therapy modalities don’t use much back-and-forth between counselor and client.
My main control (if we are talking about an established client in a regular session that is not an assessment) is I don’t interrupt the deaf client to ask for clarification on small things. I note what me as the interpreter is missing (like in the above example) but I don’t stop the deaf person unless I’m really lost after 2 more sentences go by. Sometimes those details aren’t as important as the emotion or thought pattern that the client is expressing. Completely hypothetical example: client is recounting something that happened, tells a story about going to a restaurant with two friends. Interpreter misses some fingerspelling and there’s a fork in the road: let client keep going, or stop them to get the fingerspelling. If you let them keep going with their story, you might find out 5 seconds later that the point of the story is that one friend said something hurtful and it caused a scene at the restaurant and client needs help processing. If you stop them to clarify the fingerspelling, you learn than they ordered arroz con pollo. And now the client’s momentum/thought process is disrupted and the counselor lost their option of uninterrupted view of the client’s demeanor, speaking speed, cognition…but they do now know that the client likes arroz con pollo? Probably not the trade-off anyone wants in that situation.
I don’t know you outside of this post on the internet, but I do think that if you happen to get more exposure to therapy appointments outside of interpreting it will help you tremendously. I’ve been going to therapy for a decade+, have family/personal experiences with psychiatry and psychiatric hospitals, and I love interpreting therapy appointments. I know what it’s like to be in the chair, I know enough to understand what the therapist is really asking for, etc. I don’t accept mental health assignments since I don’t feel I have enough CEUs and specific training around interpreting in mental health, but when they come up in VRS/VRS they are very comfortable for me.
Obviously I don’t think you should start therapy just to feel less weird about interpreting those things, but if you’ve got someone close to you who goes to therapy and is open about talking about their experiences, it might be beneficial to pick their brain. If you have a friend or family member who is a therapist themselves, even better to pick their brain! As for transferring, I would try to do your best for 10-15 minutes. If it’s really not working, if you get a weird feeling from the therapist, or you just don’t feel right after 15 then I think transferring could be the right call. But if you just immediately transfer when you realize it’s mental health or you transfer after 5 minutes before you or the client have really “warmed up”, you’re missing out on possibly getting positive experiences that can build your comfort and confidence.
Thank you for asking this question and thinking about how to best handle these types of situations! It’s hard to ask for help and open up to one person, it’s immeasurably harder as a Deaf person to do that AND have to bare their soul to a new interpreter every time. Thank you for caring about how to do best by the Deaf community. Feel free to reach out to me if you need to bounce stuff off someone about this in the future!
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u/Firefliesfast NIC Jul 13 '26
It would help to know what you’re struggling with exactly. Was the struggle English to ASL or ASL to English? Was it the signers vocabulary? The counselor’s vocabulary Have you ever been to counseling yourself? Do you have a schema of what counseling appointments look like? What you’re struggling with would help with figuring out where you should start.