ABSTRACT
Interpreters, as in other settings, may have useful information to share with the systemic team about culture, child- and family-rearing approaches and roles in the family's country of origin. In family therapy or couple therapy, the interpreter is usually in the circle, and equidistant from each family member. The nature of couple and family therapy is that the therapist is likely to be interacting with everyone in the room throughout the session. In some settings, there may be two therapists, or a reflecting team. As in the three-way relationship in individual therapy, a rhythm will develop once everyone settles into a comfortable group communication. Many of the families that interpreters are working with, certainly in refugee therapy settings, may be families who are reuniting after many years apart. Those members of the family who have recently arrived into exile are adjusting to a partner who may be a very different individual from the one they knew before being separated.
