April 12, 2021

Bilingual Supervision

42 minutes

An interview with Adriana Rodriguez, LMFT, about how to support bilingual, bicultural therapists. Curt and Katie talk with Adriana about her experiences as a clinician as well as her perception of the systemic concerns that bilingual/bicultural therapists face. We also dig into common work challenges for these clinicians, the ethical and competency concerns monolingual supervisors face, and specific action steps for individuals and organizations to increase the quality of supervision and training for these clinicians.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

Interview with Adriana Rodriguez, LMFT (She/Her/Ella)

Adriana Rodriguez (She/Her/Ella) is a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, she obtained a BA in Sociology from Sacramento State and a MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco. Adriana is a bilingual, queer, Salvadorian immigrant woman who is passionate about destigmatizing mental health. Adriana’s lens is intersectional, she is passionate about understanding how intergenerational trauma compounded with personal trauma impacts the mental health of first-generation adult children of immigrants and QTBIPOC. Adriana works with individuals and dyads in private practice in Sacramento, CA.

In this episode we talk about:

Adriana’s story as a bilingual, bicultural therapist who immigrated from El Salvador

Experiences of immigration, learning English, and trauma

Criticism, bias, and navigating a different culture

The impacts of uninformed supervision on bilingual or monolingual clients

The requirement to build one’s own tools (i.e., translating documents)

What is getting lost in translation – linguistic, cultural, etc.

The importance of understanding context

The power differential within the clinical supervision

How do I level the playing field and share the power?

Sharing knowledge (rather than seeing the supervisor as the only person who has knowledge in the relationship)

Acknowledging and talking about differences

Ethical concerns and supervisor responsibility

The systemic challenges that bilingual clinicians can face in getting hired or promoted

The need for greater diversity in leadership roles

The idea of “first generation everything”

The make up of the job for bilingual clinicians

Survivor guilt – immigrating, learning English, education, and making it professionally

The identification and desire to empower clients that remind you of yourself, your family members

The exploitation of that desire by agencies who do not have sufficient bilingual clinicians

How frequently bilingual clinicians have large caseloads and not sufficient compensation or matching or curating of caseloads

The risk for burnout for these clinicians

The complexity of translation

The need for more research around the impacts of monolingual supervisors providing supervision on bilingual clinicians (as well as the impacts on monolingual or bilingual clients)

The constant need for self-awareness and re-examining your bias

Making sure to understand the differences between personality and culture

Adjusting case conceptualization, looking at the triad of supervisor-clinician-client

...more

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By Curt Widhalm, LMFT and Katie Vernoy, LMFT

4.3

237237 ratings

April 12, 2021

Bilingual Supervision

42 minutes

Bilingual Supervision

Interview with Adriana Rodriguez, LMFT (She/Her/Ella)

In this episode we talk about:

Adriana’s story as a bilingual, bicultural therapist who immigrated from El Salvador

Experiences of immigration, learning English, and trauma

Criticism, bias, and navigating a different culture

The impacts of uninformed supervision on bilingual or monolingual clients

The requirement to build one’s own tools (i.e., translating documents)

What is getting lost in translation – linguistic, cultural, etc.

The importance of understanding context

The power differential within the clinical supervision

How do I level the playing field and share the power?

Sharing knowledge (rather than seeing the supervisor as the only person who has knowledge in the relationship)

Acknowledging and talking about differences

Ethical concerns and supervisor responsibility

The systemic challenges that bilingual clinicians can face in getting hired or promoted

The need for greater diversity in leadership roles

The idea of “first generation everything”

The make up of the job for bilingual clinicians

Survivor guilt – immigrating, learning English, education, and making it professionally

The identification and desire to empower clients that remind you of yourself, your family members

The exploitation of that desire by agencies who do not have sufficient bilingual clinicians

How frequently bilingual clinicians have large caseloads and not sufficient compensation or matching or curating of caseloads

The risk for burnout for these clinicians

The complexity of translation

The need for more research around the impacts of monolingual supervisors providing supervision on bilingual clinicians (as well as the impacts on monolingual or bilingual clients)

The constant need for self-awareness and re-examining your bias

Making sure to understand the differences between personality and culture

Adjusting case conceptualization, looking at the triad of supervisor-clinician-client

...more