IJSP Number 6, 2024

109 members to voice genuine concerns that arose in their role as interpreters for the groups of therapists that they assist and to offer recommendations for improvement. In the spirit of learning from the total experience of this work, the following concerns and recommendations are offered. 4. PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS WHEN INTERPRETING MENTAL HEALTH GROUPS IN WARTIME For clarity, the following terms will be used when discussing our concerns and recommendations: Group leader or “leader” refers to the volunteer mental health professionals from the international community (often very experienced) who facilitated the groups of Ukrainian psychotherapists. Most group leaders did not speak Ukrainian. Group member or “member” refers to the Ukrainian psychotherapists who attended these groups. The term “psychotherapist” has different meanings in different countries. For our purposes, it refers to anyone providing psychotherapy including psychologists, psychiatrists, and master’s level psychotherapists. Interpreter refers to those individuals who volunteered to facilitate communication between group leaders and group members by providing interpretation in the groups. All the following recommendations were arrived at through discussions that happened in the group that were designed to support the interpreters. However, much of the group material that led to them was taken from their descriptions of the groups they provided interpretation for, and therefore also applies to group leaders and group members. Before getting into the specifics of our listed problems and recommendations, it is important to note that good communication, planning, and mutual professional respect are overarching recommendations for group leaders, interpreters, and group members to strive for. 4.1. LIMIT THE ROLE OF THE INTERPRETER TO INTERPRETATION (USUALLY) Our experience discussing the role of the interpreter in our group showed that each person approached the role differently. For this recommendation, we will focus on whether the interpreters stayed to their interpretation role or if they were also invited to consider themselves group members or asked to fill organizational roles as well. It is noteworthy that some welcomed the opportunity to consider themselves group members (and in many cases also had careers as psychotherapists) and others had little or no background or interest in doing so. Simply stated our recommendation to mainly stick to the role of interpretation is made based on the additional burden and