Counselling & Therapy Twice as Effective in Clients’ Native Language

According to a study published in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training (Vol. 43, No. 4), therapy interventions in a client’s native language are over twice as effective as therapy that is carried out in a second language.

The implication of this is that the English- speaking community in Spain should seriously consider using an English-speaking counsellor or therapist who will be able to attend them in their native language.

It is through language that we share meaningful cultural experiences and we could even say that language is much more than just words. So when you use an English-speaking counsellor or therapist, there are shared cultural understandings and meanings related to social norms such as the expression or repression of emotions, that often cannot be fully understood by someone outside of that culture.

The meta-analysis which studied 76 quantitative pieces of research, also claimed that if a therapeutic intervention was specifically orientated towards a particular culture, it had four times better outcomes than a culturally non-specific therapeutic intervention.

Other findings

English-speaking clients with or without a mental health diagnosis are both just as likely to benefit from the intervention of an English-speaking counsellor or therapist, when it comes to reaching life goals.

ESHA Spain has a comprehensive list of English- speaking counsellors and therapists in Spain

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