Welcome to the Free Online Training on Secondary Trauma and Fostering Wellness for Interpreters!
MCIS Language Solutions has developed this course based on the training called Healing Voices: Interpreting for Survivors of Torture, War Trauma and Sexual Violence, a program developed by The Voice of Love (VOL) Project, a non-profit organization that dedicates itself to developing training and resources to support interpreters working with survivors of extreme trauma.
This training explores how interpreting for trauma survivors may affect an interpreter by identifying factors related to job stress, learning how to differentiate between secondary trauma and stress, and how to become aware of secondary trauma and strategies to prevent or minimize its effect. Lastly, it reviews self-care techniques, including how to develop wellness goals.
Training Objectives:
- Identify factors related to job stress and how they can affect one’s work.
- Define and explain secondary trauma that interpreters may experience.
- Apply strategies to identify, prevent or minimize secondary trauma for interpreters.
- Review self-care strategies and create a personal wellness plan.
If you would like to take the training, please create an account on our learning platform.
A Training Manual “Healing Voices – Interpreting for Survivors of Torture, War Trauma and Sexual Violence”
In addition to the Free Online Training on Secondary Trauma and Fostering Wellness for Interpreters, the training manual designed to support a five-day training program about interpreting for survivors of torture, war trauma and sexual violence is available for download here. It can be used as a manual to train refugee interpreters, but this book also addresses interpreting for displaced migrants in any part of the world.
The manual is not intended for novice interpreters. It supports interpreters who are practicing at a professional level and who have had prior interpreter training.
This book can be used for independent study but will ideally be used as part of a training program led by an interpreter trainer (who specializes in trauma-informed interpreting) and a licensed therapist (who specializes in torture treatment services or refugee mental health).
A prerequisite for attending this program and making good use of this manual is the successful completion of an entry-level program in general, community, medical and/or legal interpreting. Due to the sensitive content in this manual, which addresses the experiences of torture and war trauma survivors, the authors do not recommend that novice interpreters read this manual.
This manual was developed by specialists in spoken language interpreting and clinicians. However, the content is also relevant for sign language interpreters and intended for their benefit.
About MCIS Language Solutions
MCIS Language Solutions is a non-profit that has evolved into a model social enterprise and has been relentlessly pursuing its goal to remove language barriers for over 25 years. With over 60 full-time staff and engaging a roster of over 6,000 interpreters, translators, voice artists, transcriptionists, training facilitators, and other language professionals, MCIS provides a full suite of language solutions: from language interpretation, translation and transcription to localization, training and training development for government, legal, police services and healthcare organizations in 300+ languages. Learn more about MCIS…
For more information about the training, please contact us at training@mcis.on.ca.
