Bilingual Therapists’ Confidence Using Clinical Spanish Language Terminology

ABSTRACT

Bilingual therapists may use Spanish to create trust and enhance therapeutic relationships with bilingual clients, but less is known about working with monolingual Spanish-speaking clients. This study explores clinical Spanish language skills and perceived clinical Spanish efficacy of bilingual (Spanish/English) mental health clinicians who provide services to monolingual Spanish speakers. Bilingual mental health clinicians (N = 22) completed an online self-report survey measuring their perceived level of Spanish skills, comfort, and efficacy. Results revealed that 68.2% of participating clinicians have difficulty translating therapeutic terminology into Spanish, roughly 1 to 3 times per session, with 86% stating a need for formal training in Spanish clinical terminology.

KEYWORDS:

• bilingual
• language efficacy
• Spanish clinical terms
• Spanish monolingual
• training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Latinx is a gender neutral term often used in lieu of Latino or Latina to reference Latin American cultural or racial identity.