Episode 6: Culture and language

In this episode we dive into rich topics of language, culture, and power. Discover what it’s like to have therapy not in your ‘mother’ tongue – and why every therapist needs to understand the concept of code-switching.

Rachael speaks to Zeynep Kasap (she/her) a person-centred psychotherapist and researcher of Turkish origin.

Rachael writes:   It was interesting to reflect on the opening moments of the podcast where Zeynep introduces herself and states she is a ‘psychotherapist of Turkish origin’. As with the other episodes, I did not share my nationality or ethnicity, i.e. that I am white British. The difference in our forms of introduction prompted reflection on the silences that often occur surrounding majority cultures in counselling and psychotherapy and beyond. This area would benefit from a future podcast episode for encountering and exploration so please get in touch if this is of interest.

Zeynep specifically mentions the Turkish word ‘ayip’ and what the word means to her in her experience. This short video offers another way of trying to wrestle with ‘ayip’. Rachael mentioned the word ‘saudade’ (as a non-Portuguese speaker, please excuse my pronunciation!) to demonstrate the complexity and untranslatable quality of some words into English. A general discussion on ‘saudade’ is available here and a critical exploration is available here.

Zeynep has done some really valuable work with Beverly Costa. This website offers a cornucopia of resources from Beverley and colleagues. Further information about code switching is available here and here.

More generally, working across cultures can provide interesting ways to consider disorientation, ‘unruliness’ and the need to decolonize therapy.