Interpreting trauma
Simo K. Määttä
Abstract
This chapter analyses service provider’s and interpreters’ views on dialogue interpreting through two datasets. The first dataset is extracted from data collected in a large European project whose goal was to improve counselling methods for refugee women who have experienced gender-based violence (GBV). The second dataset consists of selected passages of interpreting diaries, most of which are related to trauma experienced by the client. The ability to process and tolerate stress is regarded as one of the most important qualities of a professional interpreter in all modes and types of interpreting. Interpreting related to traumatic experiences causes intense stress and may lead to burnout and/or vicarious traumatization. The interpreting diaries were originally produced to map sociolinguistic issues related to language ideologies, namely “cultural conceptions of the nature, form and purpose of language”. The interpreter’s affective burden is explicitly mentioned in a few journal entries.