Interpreters often carry the emotional burden of others’ trauma. Researcher Chiara Rao, who previously created a digital story on this theme, shares insights into the mental health challenges interpreters face—and why support and awareness are essential. Let’s explore the hidden cost of giving others a voice.
Transcript:
Introduction:
Welcome to today’s episode of the Comundos podcast, where we delve into an often overlooked but deeply important topic: Vicarious trauma in interpreters. Our guest today is Chiara Rao, alumni and researcher at the VUB.
Host: Welcome back Chiara and thank you for joining us on today’s podcast.
Chiara: Hi Ana, thank you so much for having me!
Host: Before we start, would you like to briefly introduce yourself?
Chiara: Of course. As you said, my name is Chiara, I come from the south of Italy, and I moved to Belgium about 5 years ago to study, first for half a year as an Erasmus student at the KU Leuven in Antwerp, and then I graduated from the VUB for my master's in 2023. And I’ve been working as a researcher there ever since.
Host: Oh that’s nice, congrats on the diploma. Today I would like to talk about a topic you made a digital story on back in 2024, vicarious trauma in interpreters. What led you to begin researching this topic?
Chiara: It all started when I was studying interpreting and translation in Italy, uhm, one day I just read an article about this issue and realized I had never heard about it before, but it made perfect sense. That has been, let’s say, “bugging” me ever since, so I decided to delve deeper into this topic for my master’s thesis, which kinda coincided with the beginning of the war in Ukraine. That situation, and all the talking about crisis translation and interpreting, made me think like “what about those interpreters? What about interpreters who themselves come from Ukraine and need to work with and for their co-nationals who are fleeing the country?”. Since then, I discovered that this issue is more common and less addressed than I thought, which is why I am doing research on it right now.
Host: Oh yeah the war in Ukraine is unfortunate, and as you said I can’t imagine what Ukrainian interpreters have gone through. Hopefully we can raise awareness on this issue and provide information on how to cope.
Host: But, going back to your digital story, you briefly explained why interpreters are vulnerable to vicarious trauma. Could you expand a little bit on that for our listeners?
Chiara: So, vicarious trauma is something that all helping professionals are kind of vulnerable to, because they can be repeatedly exposed to really traumatic narratives, materials. So this can of course have an impact on the emotional wellbeing of people. The fact with interpreters is that they’re also there in those situations, and they not only have to listen but also repeat everything using the first person. On top of that, while people kind of recognize that a lot of other professionals can experience this, interpreters are kind of taken for granted. Interpreters are there in the same delicate situations as other professionals, which can lead to a lot of stress that is not systematically addressed. Of course, professional interpreters know that that’s their job and they know how to behave, just like doctors know that visiting a patient is their job. And just like many other people, they may as well know how to deal with stress. However, sometimes one just doesn’t know where the pain comes from, and raising awareness on this issue may allow those interpreters who don’t know where the pain might come from to take active measures to shield themselves in their line of work.
Host: That is very interesting, it’s true that compared to other professions, interpreters might be overlooked. Could you tell me what are some key symptoms and early signs of vicarious trauma?
Chiara: I’d like to make a small disclaimer before we delve a bit deeper into this concept, which is that I am not a mental health professional, so my knowledge of this comes from a lot of research but I have not been trained to handle this in “real life”. This just to say, whoever’s listening, please don’t take this as gospel, and if you think you’re experiencing a lot of work-related stress, please get in touch with a mental health professional. That being said, signs and symptoms can change for everyone, but I’d say that people can start noticing an impairment in their physical health, they might sleep badly, have nightmares, loss of appetite, but also mood swings, intense sadness or irritability, or intrusive thoughts, like thinking about what you heard during an assignment often is not a very good sign of course, especially if it impacts the way you lead your normal life. I’d like of course to say that it’s normal to feel empathy and feel sadness and think about what you heard for a few days maybe, but when it becomes too much and it becomes a source of intense negative emotions, that’s probably not a very good sign.
Host: Well, now that you mention it, could you tell me in what ways vicarious trauma can affect both the personal and professional lives of interpreters?
Chiara: That's a very good question, because it really does impact on the quality of life of people a lot, and of interpreters as well, of course. So, first of all, symptoms can of course progress and truly resemble posttraumatic stress disorder, leading to depressive states and burnout and really impact the way people cope with their daily living. Feeling this emotional pain and leaving it unaddressed may stop people from enjoying things that they normally would love, prevent them from engaging with other people thereby leading to self-isolation… having nightmares, constant thoughts, feeling threatened or believing that there’s no justice in the world, experiencing cynicism or anger… All this can make it really difficult to lead a normal life, and worsens the situation immensely or resembles real symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. On top of that, trauma or working with traumatic narratives may hinder the ability of interpreters to adhere to codes of ethics, for example of neutrality, it can profoundly change the relationship with their profession, and this type of stress and emotional distress often leads to professional dropouts… plus, it can lead to interpreters thinking that their performance is not good or not sufficient. Not to mention that because trauma causes imbalances in cognitive functions and now we know also in linguistic production it may make it more difficult for interpreters to work, it might make them prone to error… There's this article that’s titled “Self-care as an ethical responsibility”, and I think that really summarizes my message here: taking care of interpreters’ wellbeing is fundamental to ensure that service provision is always of the highest standard.
Host: So you just said that vicarious trauma can resemble and progress similarly to PTSD. Could you maybe explain the key differences between the two of them?
Chiara: That's a very good question, because it’s also a difficult one to answer. In short, the biggest difference is that PTSD as we know it is usually the result of personal traumatic experiences and it can vary in severity based on a series of factors, including the way that trauma is processed and the level of experienced threat. However, if we look at the definition of PSTD on the DSM-5, which is the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, we see that the concept of PSTD includes secondary traumatization which can also be caused by exposure to trauma in the work environment. So really, secondary trauma does have very similar effects to PSTD, and symptom clusters really coincide a lot.
Host: What are some coping strategies that interpreters can adopt if they’re experiencing vicarious trauma?
Chiara: Coping strategies depend a lot on the individual of course, specifically those that one implement in their daily living or to cope with the aftermath of a difficult assignment. We’re talking here about physical movement, practicing sports, but in general doing what you like, something that helps you get distracted… then there are other strategies like meditation, deep breathing, or practicing mindfulness, which have been observed to be very effective in dealing with stress in general also from a physiological perspective, but of course they might not necessarily work for everyone. Talking to peers or people you trust, trying to express what you’re going through can also help you process the entire situation. For interpreters specifically, receiving briefing information and engaging in debriefing can be very beneficial as well; there have been discussions over the use of the third person as a coping strategy during the interpreting session itself, but that might be a very long discussion that perhaps we can keep for a next time ahahah.
Host: Yes that’s a good idea! haha .
Host: Beyond coping, are there any preventive actions interpreters can take to protect themselves from vicarious trauma?
Chiara: In terms of preventive actions I would say—get to know yourself, try to ask for briefing information, try to know what you’re going to be facing, take a deep breath, and now I know this might come off as a bit unpopular but if you think you’re going to have to deal with something you cannot deal with, try to consider refusing the assignment. I don’t want to say people shouldn’t go to work of course, interpreters are professionals. But at the same time, it is an option that people should consider. Some people work themselves to pieces and deal too much with things that are too much for them. In certain contexts, it is part of a deontological code to refuse assignments that you cannot handle because of different reasons, that means because you don’t speak the language well enough, because you don’t know the subject matter at all, and also because you emotionally may not be able to handle it. It’s just very important that people take care of themselves.
Host: And now moving on to a more positive note. Since vicarious trauma comes from mirroring and absorbing other people's emotions, can positive emotions also be absorbed? And how could those have a beneficial impact on interpreters?
Chiara: Absolutely! There is this phenomenon called vicarious posttraumatic growth which is basically experiencing feelings of growth, gratitude, and in general positive changes in the way we see and experience the world, which comes from this type of exposure, yes. There’s not much research on this in the context of interpreting, but I am so interested in this phenomenon, and I think it would be interesting to see what role this plays in the processing of traumatic exposure.
Host: Oh, yeah, I see. Well, hopefully either you or someone else can develop further research into how positive emotions can have an effect on interpreters, because it does sound like something worth looking into. And what would you say are some effective ways to raise awareness about vicarious trauma in the interpreting community?
Chiara: Effective ways to raise awareness. Well, I think what we're doing right now is a very good way to raise awareness. It's talking about it, just telling interpreters training. Training is just very important. It's one of the coping strategies, of the preventive strategies, that perhaps I should have mentioned. Providing training to interpreters on dealing with stress, on dealing with trauma, with these very intense emotions in the context of their work is just very important. It's a fantastic way to raise awareness, just to make people aware that this is a risk, that they might have to deal with something like this. Perhaps already at the university level, for people who do study interpreting, but in general, associations could decide to take this upon themselves, to provide training to interpreters in general. Talking about it, writing about it. It's just very important to raise awareness. So there are just many ways to do that, like making podcasts. Thank you very much for inviting me for this.
Host: Oh yeah, no, the pleasure is all mine. Thank you for coming. Since we're talking about raising awareness, are there any organizations actively working to address this issue? Are employers doing enough?
Chiara: I’ll focus on Belgium specifically to answer this question, because situations can vary depending on the country and how interpreting is organized institutionally. I can say that some organizations really do try their utter best to support their interpreters in all the aspects of their work. For instance, for my research I’ve been working with SeTIS, which is a service provider of public service interpreting in French in Brussels (and there is also a Wallonian division), and with the resources that they have they really do try to provide support in different ways (like supervision, and sharing groups…), which apparently does help a lot in certain cases. This is not the only example of course. Other organizations have been taking interest in providing support to the interpreters that are members or work with them, and I have the impression that there is more awareness on this issue at a systematic level. However, it’s still too little according to me.
Host: Well, that's good. At least they're starting to do something about it. But also, what about freelance interpreters? Do they have access to the same kinds of support systems or what else is available for them?
Chiara: That is an excellent question, because freelance interpreting and translation can be inherently lonely professions. The situation of freelance interpreters can be a bit more problematic compared to those who are affiliated with or employed by agencies or organizations because they might not always be guaranteed access to resources as easily accessible as they are for others. In this case, I think that being part of overarching chambers or organizations like the AIIC or BKVT or BBVT in Belgium can be very beneficial. For interpreters who do not have access to support systems, I think training from the beginning would be the best option in any case, to raise awareness on the issue and prepare them for what might come their way. Training can be delivered via overarching organizations and publicized for interpreters that are not part of those as well or can happen at university level for those who do study interpreting, and so on. In general, whoever has access to interpreter education, and also intercultural mediation education, should have access to stress management courses that address trauma exposure and coping.
Host: Well, thank you so much for sharing. Hopefully these resources will come in handy for interpreters everywhere. And thank you once again for sharing your insight and research with us today,Chiara. I think this is a conversation that is crucial to understand and raise awareness on vicarious trauma in interpreting, as you said before. Thank you for being here!
Chiara: Thank you so much for having me and for inviting me for this podcast. I was very happy to be able to talk to you and I hope I answered all your questions thoroughly and that I provided enough information on this topic. So thanks again!
