Katz and Wu Supv Different Worlds

8/9/2019 Katz and Wu Supv Different Worlds

1/4

An Invitation

This article is written to introduce a way of su-pervision for bilingual clinicians who are prac-

ticing therapy in their local language and neces-sarily are having to navigate between their locallanguage and English. For one of us (SJW), aChinese clinician practicing therapy in an Eng-lish dominant discourse environment, fitting-in with the developed theories, journal articles,presentations of well-organized workshops andconferences had always been the priority in herprofessional development. However, she wasaware that something about herself as a personwas still missing. She did not at first realize whatit was. But as she began to work with her super-

visor (AK), she was able to articulate these con-cerns in ways which made sense to her. FromSJWs perspective, the overall concern of bilin-gual trainees is that if they are supervised solelythrough the dominant supervision discourse(such as various supervision theory models) without receiving much curiosity about whatmight be the unknown, they are not often in-

vited to speak about their cultural experiencesand how such experiences inform them as aperson and therapist in a moment to moment

kind of practice. How bilingual practitionerstravel between their native language and Englishis rarely addressed in supervision. Consequently,their voice is not fully present; only the voicethat fits into the mainstream can be present.

In supervision with AK, SJW experienced manymoments of being invited to speak in her own,indigenous, native voice. It created in her notonly a sense of access to her own language andculture, but a new sense of resourcefulness. To-gether, we felt that in the local world we werebuilding together, we could draw on both the

Chinese and the Western worlds (Katz & Shot-ter, 1996; Shotter & Katz, 1996). Each of uscould be, and were struck by events whichraised possibilities for navigating between the world of Western professional language andculture, and SJWs own Chinese language andculture.

Entering into Different Worlds: Ethnographic Participatory Supervision for Bilingual Clinicians

Shi-Jiuan Wu, Ph.D., &Arlene Katz Ed.D.

Discourse lives, as it were, on the boundary between its own context and another, alien con-text. (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 284)

In order to write of my childhood I have to translate. It is as if I am writing about someone

else. As a boy, I lived in French; now I live in English. The words dont fit, because languagesare not equivalent to one another... Its not that the boy couldnt understand these phrases. Itis that in order to do so, he would have to translate, and that would mean engaging an elec-trical circuit in his brain, bypassing his heart. (Sant, 1997, p. 99)

I suppose I am never completely present in any given moment, since different aspects ofmyself are contained in different rooms of language, and a complicated apparatus of air-locks prevents the doors from being flung open all at once. (Sant, 1997, p. 111)


2/4


3/4

ingful can get invited. There is a difference be-tween a position of having to translate and work out what matters through a professionalframework and re-claiming a sensibility fromher own language and the nuances of her worldan immediate and spontaneous sensefrom Chinese.

SJW: I was given significance and voiceratherthan felt differences being silenced, colonized. Ifeel I can be more who I am and this can helpme enter my world with others and appreciatewords differently.

But why was SJW so moved by such a simpleinvitation? The risk to the bilingual cliniciantheloss, in practicing therapy and having supervi-sion solely in a dominant language settingisthat all the nuances, sounds, local phrases, sen-

sations from the local language are put aside ifnot openly welcomed. The bilingual clinician isnot able to access her local resources throughher mother-tongue language. Sometimes this isof crucial importance. We offer below whatcould appear as a typical referral of a clientwho is depressed. Yet we soon realize that wecant automatically translate depression fromChinese to English. A whole world opens upfor us as we enter into her Chinese words andher worldwhat matters to her. We begin withher own words (as translated by SJW):

Client: Because my husband does not havejob, I let him cook. But I also become lazier. Iused to live with my mother-in-law in Taiwan.At that time, I was under more pressure but itseasier to kill the time. Now my business doesnot go well, its much harder to kill the time.

In supervision:

AK: I am interested in the words and meaningof killing the time.

SJW: In Chinese, it is pronounced da fa. Da

means beat up, fa means releasing. Fa is howyou use your time. Oftentimes it means one maynot have to plan how to spend the time. Thisclient wanted to be able to use her time well butdid not know how to use her time in a goodway.

AK: So killing the time is more how she canmanage her time positively. Its not like she didnot want to do things.

SJW: Exactly. What word would people use forthis meaning here?

AK: Probably, passing the time, going with theflow.

In other words, what could easily have been a

misunderstanding herethat by killing thetime the woman meant wasting time, get-ting through it somehow, rather than beingfully engaged, or captivated by her taskswasbrought to light. It would have been easy for asupervisor to see the Chinese woman, and herrelations to her husband, in a completely wronglight.

Later Co-Reflections

SJW: I was struck by how Arlene approachedthe translated words. She did not assume she

knew the meaning of killing the time. Instead,she asked curious questions to invite me to re-flect on what does it mean and shift thinking inbetween Chinese and English. Its so easy tothink from our point of view and risk patholo-gizing our client. This is a powerful lesson forme and I need to sense words even with morehumility and curiosity because it allows me tobetter enter into my clients world and help myclient based on her world view, not upon mine.

AK: We notice how a short phrase can bestrikingfait invites a whole world of mean-

ingfaand we want to know what that world is.For this client a sign of wanting to feel better would be that she could kill the timeshe would then be able to go with the flow, letthings happen, go along with her energies. Byentering into the words and worlds them-selves, I was afforded an opportunity to learn ofthe different aspects of words and phrases inChinese from the characters that form them, akind of invitation to enter into spaces of possi-bility, a sense of wonder in learning the subtlenuances of words that can too often be takenfor granted. In navigating these different worlds,we make visible what we can learn from eachother; and become aware of what matters mostfor each of us. It asks us to become aware ofanother world, point of view, culturea particu-lar kind of answerability that makes us aware ofwhat is at stake for each of us in this emerging

3


4/4

local moral world (Kleinman, 1995) betweenus and with our clients.

And SJW not only became my guide, but she went on to become aware of aspects of herown language that she herself had taken for

granted. As she said, If you were a Chinesespeaker these questions may not be asked. And she then went on to be struck by seeingwhat had been a familiar word in a new way.This space of engagement is not just about

Chinese and English, or professional discourseand lived experience, but about the richness ofdaring to enter into very different worlds withanother person. What is at stake for clinicians intraining whose first language is not English, whose lived experience is divided between (atleast) two different cultural worlds? A whole

world of experience can be kept in the back-ground, in learning a professional practice. Notonly listening to their voicesbut what is atstake for them as they navigate between verydifferent worlds, the professional world and,their own local cultures, their own languages.

Conclusion

We write this paper as an invitation to dialogueand exchange on what we have found to becritical issues in the process of multiculturalsupervision. We have experienced the process

of Ethnographic Participatory Supervision asone way in which to conduct bilingual supervi-sion. For SJW, a bilingual clinician, the processhas been striking and has brought out more ofherself as a Chinese clinician who wants toshare her personal and professional experienceswith the readers. As AK commented: Its liketwo languages, two cultures play and minglewith each other. The question now is how wecan invite bilingual clinicians to bring forwardmore of who they are, of their world, thus toenrich our knowledge in the field of supervision

from native and local points of view; how can

we play some more with each other? For SJW,this collaborative and generative process hasbeen transformatory; something that she hasnot experienced from the textbooks. Even nowshe is still touched by it and believes it will staywith her throughout her life.

References

Andersen. T. (1991). The reflecting team. NewYork, NY: W.W. Norton.

Anderson, H., & Goolishian, H. (1988). Humansystems as linguistic systems: Evolving ideasabout the implications for theory and practice.Family Process, 27, 371-393.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. InM. Holquist, (Ed.), Translated by C. Emerson &M. Holquist. Austin, TX: University of Texas

Press.Katz A. M., & Shorter, J. (1996). Hearing thepatients voice: Toward a social poetics in diag-nostic interviews. Social Science and Medicine,43(6), 919-931.

Katz, A. M., Siegel, B. S., & Rappo, P. (1997).Reflections from a collaborative pediatric men-torship program: Building a community of re-sources.Ambulatory Child Health, 3, 101-112.

Kleinman, A. (1995). Writing at the Margins:Discourse between anthropology and medicine.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Sant, L. (1997). Lingua Franca. Granta, 59, 99-111.

Shorter, J., & Katz, A. M. (1996). Living mo-ments in dialogical exchanges. In V. Hansen(Ed.), Dialog og Refleksjon: Festchrift for ProfessorTom Andersens 60th birthday.

Shi-Jiuan Wu, PhD, is an AAMFT Clinical Memberand Approved Supervisor in Greenville, North Caro-lina.

Arlene Katz, EdD, is an AAMFT Clinical Member

and Approved Supervisor in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

4

Documents

Katz and Wu Supv Different Worlds