Thank you for starting this Group. I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about PTSD in nurses, doctors, EMT personnel, etc. and how their emotional needs are often overlooked in difficult situations. I feel that this applies to interpreters as well. I found that in a couple of my most difficult cases. I was both put on a pedestal as a saviour for being able to help the staff communicate during a crucial time as well as being treated like a piece of furniture, devoid of any feelings at all despite what we had just witnessed. It’s a hard dichotomy sometimes, and always a very difficult path to maneuver when dealing with our own emotional aftermath of the words/emotions we just conveyed.
I’ve found that I have a much more macabre sense of humor now than I did before I started interpreting, and I recognize that it has become a way for me to deal with some of the uglier parts of humanity that we bear witness (and give voice) to.
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