%0 Journal Article
%T Bilingual Families: Using Therapist
%A Roxanne Ruiz-Adams
%J The Family Journal
%@ 1552-3950
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1066480719832506
%X Families initiate psychotherapy with a narrative that identifies a mythological explanation for their suffering. Through narrative therapy, a therapist is able to reframe this mythological narrative into a theoretically grounded narrative that is able to provide healing. The process in which a narrative becomes reframed involves the use of language which can be hindered if no common language is available within the family. Without a common language, narratives are influenced by incomplete subjective experiences which are dulled by the cognitive effort it takes to speak and understand in a second learned language. This article discusses the challenges in working with a bilingual family containing different levels of language proficiencies among its members. I will use this case study to discuss therapist-assisted interpretation which provides each member the opportunity to influence the new narrative with an authentic subjective experience that would otherwise be absent without the therapist¡¯s ability to interpret
%K bilingual
%K parent¨Cchild language discrepancy
%K code-switching
%K Latino family therapy
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1066480719832506