The Varieties of Effects of Using a Later-learned Language in Psychotherapy: A Psychoanalytic-Linguistic Investigation with Particular Reference to Involuntarily Dislocated Persons

Mental health professionals rely heavily on language when providing their services (Dickerman & Alfonso, 2015; Flegenheimer, 1989). Nowadays, psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists, usually need more than one language in their profession since their clients could have different cultural, ethnic, racial, and linguistic backgrounds. Mental health professionals and clients are subject to changes in self-perception, emotions, and memory, among other areas, when they are using a later-learned language (Sapir, 1951; de Zulueta, 1990; Wu & Thierry, 2012). The effects are more robust when it comes to psychological therapy with involuntarily dislocated persons (Papadopoulos, 2021) since going to another country is not a matter of choice, and they are usually not prepared to move from their country of origin. Furthermore, involuntarily dislocated persons face adversities in their country of origin, on their journey, and in the host country. Therefore, they usually need psychological support once they are in a safe place. In the current study, the possible effects of using a later-learned language in psychotherapy have been explored. One pilot study and a further eleven in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection. Braun and Clarke's "Six Phases of Thematic Analysis" (2006) was used in order to analyse the data. The data for the current study were collected from mental health practitioners only, and therefore it shows the effects of later-learned languages through their perspective. The results of the study showed that both mental health practitioners and their clients are subject to various effects when they use a later-learned language during the therapy process. One of the crucial findings of the current study was the effect of lack of training on the effect of language for psychotherapists. Furthermore, it showed that using a later-learned language has an effect on emotions and the therapeutic relationship.