TerpHealth: Prevention and Management of Interpreting Related Injury

TerpHealth: Prevention and Management of Interpreting Related Injury Dr. Diane Gross, DOM, L.Ac., CI/CT (retir
"Sign Safely - Interpret Intelligently"
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TerpHealth(TM) offers prevention and management strategies for interpreting related injury, including ergonomic, nutritional and oriental medical interventions. TerpHealth also provides interventions for emotional stress concerns, workplace analysis and improvement, business, profitability and morale, Life Coaching, and general health and well being.

12/17/2025

Perfection is a harsh taskmaster. It can leave you feeling stressed, inadequate and frustrated. These feelings contribute significantly to an increased risk of injury. Interpreters often feel the pressure to produce work that is perfect - but no interpretation will ever be flawless. Any single interpretation will never fully reflect every nuance, subtlety and cultural implication imbedded in the source message.

When perfectionism is the standard, stressful emotions that can arise from feeling consistently inadequate. This increases the risk of injury because it can negatively affect bio-mechanics and ergonomics. It can also increase stress hormones in the body, which interferes with the body's ability to heal and recover for interpreting.

There is a difference between demanding perfection from oneself and professional integrity. Perfectionism is unhealthy and dysfunctional. It creates discouragement, increases feelings of stress as well as the likelihood of injury. Professional integrity keeps us constantly growing, learning and improving. It also allows us to be happy and healthy along the way.

12/13/2025

"Stalking negativity" is a term that describes a propensity to look for, and overly focus on, the negative (It reminds me of the term ‘doom scrolling’). This tends to be an issue in the interpreting field. There is a hyper-focus on what went wrong during the interpretation - what could have been done better - what was lacking. Identifying and correcting the deficits in our interpreting can be helpful when done in a balanced way, however it can create a sense of inadequacy and frustration when done to excess. This can increase the risk of injury due to a rise in physical and emotional stress.

But what if we all "stalk positivity" today?! Look for and emphasize the positive in your work and the work of others. This can help bring more balance to our perspective about our interpreting. It may also return some joy and fun to our work!

12/13/2025

As a field we HAVE to start talking about the fact that we make mistakes. There is so much shame and judgment! Yes, the stakes are high - but every one of us HAS made and WILL make mistakes. It's unfortunate, but true. We need to start having a meaningful and compassionate discussion about this fact. The shame and judgment is not helpful. It just helps to perpetuate a climate in which we limit our ability to learn and grow from our mistakes because we are so busy trying to hide and deny them. When we try to sweep mistakes under the rug rather than deal with them openly and honestly (I'm not talking about breaking confidentiality here...), then we continue to foster an unhealthy fear and the dysfunction of perfectionism within our profession. Mistakes happen in every professional field. The healthiest ones are those that are willing to do the hard work of taking an honest look at it; the ones that provide support and solutions rather than judgment.

- We need to keep the mistakes in perspective. The VAST majority of 'mistakes' that I see interpreters beat themselves and each other up over are relatively small. Often the sign choice isn't even a 'mistake' per se, but just not the 'perfect' sign choice.

- None of the above means that we can or should take a cavalier attitude toward making mistakes - like it doesn't matter. It IS important that each of us approaches the work we do with integrity. It is also important that we remember we are human beings.

- We must use mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth.

- We must stop abusing ourselves by demanding we be more than human.

12/07/2025

A chair without arms should be used when interpreting in a seated position. Interpreting in chairs that have arms may seem helpful but can have long term negative consequences. Some of these are:

- Ulnar nerve impingement can result over time when resting your arms on the chair arms. The ulnar nerve runs very close to the surface of your skin in the exact area where you place your arm or elbow on the chair arm.

- Increased muscle tension and pain can result in the neck and shoulder muscles because the chair arms subtly push your shoulders upward when you place your arms or elbows on the chair arms.

- Interpreting bio-mechanics are negatively affected because chair arms cause you to elevate your sign space (which creates a greater workload for your muscles), and your sign space must become unnaturally narrow (which contributes to and/or causes an excessive rounding of the shoulders and a tightening of the thoracic area (front of shoulder).

- Chair arms discourage you from taking full rests, with your hands in your lap.

Sometimes interpreters have to "wean off" using chair arms because the muscles in the thoracic area have become shortened, so lowering the hands to the lap for resting increases pain after a short time. Generally this indicates an interpreter could benefit from passive and active stretches to open the chest and thoracic region - along with strengthening the upper back and core to support and hold a healthy posture.

12/05/2025

Interpreters who work in emotionally triggering environments must be especially mindful of their breath - with a special focus on the out-breath. Many people unknowingly hold their breath and/or chest breathe when feeling stressed - which can increase the chance that the body will hold onto the stressful feelings rather than release them. Bringing the breath to the abdomen/diaphragm helps to lower the stress response.

Additionally, it is helpful to emphasize the out-breath rather than the in-breath. The out-breath is when you release physical and emotional tension. Breathing in stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and increases heart rate. Breathing out stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows heart rate and calms. Breathing in and out is kind of a ‘dance’ and balance between the alert and the calm state of being (breathing in = alert, and breathing out = calm). When you are feeling stressed, more attention on the out-breath is important to help calm your system. Starting with a complete exhalation, rather than taking a deep breath in, can help begin to release the tension being held by the body.

11/29/2025

Work capacity is that level of work that can be done without immediate risk of injury. If, however, an individual is constantly working at, or near, maximum work capacity then the risk of injury is high. The simplest way to change this is to increase strength, endurance and flexibility. The stronger and more flexible an interpreter is, the less the risk of injury. This is true of any athlete. Types of exercises that can be helpful for the interpreter athlete are:

- Strength and endurance.

- Flexibility

- Aerobic.

- Warm-ups and cool-downs for before and after interpreting.

11/27/2025

Hope you each have a peaceful, beautiful, joyous day. I’m grateful for this community and for each one of you individually!

11/25/2025

How can you assess whether symptoms you are experiencing are serious, requiring medical intervention, or if they simply require a little extra rest and self-care? Its essential to get medical attention if it is required. However, if medical intervention is truly not necessary it can be helpful to know that as well! While there is no “fool proof” or definitive litmus test, there are some guidelines that can be helpful. If in doubt, always seek medical care.

Medical attention may be required if symptoms are:

- Sudden in onset
- Severe
- Sharp in quality
- Involves pins and needle sensations or numbness
- Coupled with other significant symptoms
- Don’t improve with rest
- Are easily exacerbated and reproduced

Self-care may be sufficient if symptoms are:

- Gradual onset
- Not intense
- Has an aching or throbbing quality
- Subsides with rest
- Improves with ice or heat
- Is not coupled with other symptoms

For what are we, as interpreters responsible and not responsible? This is a question that I see implicit in many of the...
11/24/2025

For what are we, as interpreters responsible and not responsible? This is a question that I see implicit in many of the issues and choices with which interpreters sometimes struggle. Being clear about this can clarify a great deal and make an interpreter’s job less frustrating and guilt-ridden.

11/22/2025

Self-care is not selfish. It is actually the most loving, compassionate, and even professional, thing we can do for ourselves AND others. We can’t give from that which we don’t have. We must nurture the resources that enable us to feel healthy, strong and able to be present for ourselves and others as needed. Self-care helps us to be far more effective interpreters - for the long haul.

Think about what the airlines tell passengers to do when the oxygen masks drop in the case of an emergency. They advise people to put their own masks on first - not because they are promoting an ‘every person for themselves’ agenda, but because they know that if you run out of oxygen you will be rendered helpless to assist anyone else. Putting the oxygen mask on yourself first isn’t selfish, it is exercising wisdom and foresight.

Making time for self-care is a pro-active choice. Many people wait to take time until they are physically, emotionally and/or emotionally spent. Responsible self-care needs to be an ongoing, regular and active part of life. Imagine running a full marathon at the pace of a sprint. You wouldn't be able to finish, and would likely hurt yourself. Interpreting is like running a marathon. If you keep an unreasonable schedule, interpret assignments alone that should be teamed, accept assignments you know you should turn down because your body is screaming for rest - but nobody else is available and you feel guilty saying "no" - then you run the risk of exhausting yourself. This can actually limit the time and quality of the services you are able to provide. In the long-run it serves nobody for you to overextend yourself.

Putting self-care first is an act of healthy self-regard, but it also is a sound professional choice. It also demands that we do the powerful work of letting-go of any residual co-dependent or "savior" attitudes and behaviors. It pushes us toward a healthier relationship with ourselves and with those for which we provide services.

11/15/2025

Sometimes interpreters deplete their energy because they overextended themselves with their interpreting schedule. But, while that may seem expedient and efficient at times, in the end it can significantly contribute to burn out, emotional exhaustion and interpreting-related injury.

Remember:

- Self-care is your first professional and personal responsibility. You can't continue to give from an empty vessel.

- Your interpreting career is a more like a marathon, than a sprint. You have to remember you are in this for the long haul. Make sure you don't spend yourself too early.

- Don't be a martyr. Overloading your schedule so that assignments don't go unfilled doesn't serve anybody in the long run. Ignoring your own needs for physical and emotional rest will ultimately put you at risk.

- A more balanced schedule - that includes significant rest and recovery time - allows you to refresh your mind and body so that you are able to continue to do your work with quality and safety.

- You can't sustain a schedule that is not in balanced without something ultimately falling apart.

- A balanced life inherently requires balance between work, activity, leisure/fun, friends, family, community and self.

11/10/2025

The mind-body connection is real. There is a bio-chemical and neurological response to the thoughts we think and the words we choose that affects us on a physiological level. When I work with patients, as well as teaching workshops and doing bio-mechanical diagnostics with interpreters, I see an interesting manifestation of this connection. Almost always language - spoken or unspoken thought - correlates with symptoms being experienced. For example, when I hear someone use words like, "that is such a headache!" I can be fairly certain that individual has frequent headaches. The same principle applies for phrases like, "a pain in the neck" and "a pain in the butt." Shoulder pain often is associated with expressions such as "it is too much to bear (or carry, or take). Low back and knee pain typically is revealed by "I can't stand it."

Sometimes patients ask me which comes first - the pain or the language choice. I have noticed it is generally the language that comes first, and the subconscious mind interprets the thought and words as "instructions". In other words, if "pain in the butt" is said often enough, the body complies and produces it.

We also need to be careful not to enter into an adversarial relationship with our own body. When someone says, "this is my bad arm", I know they are in a struggle with their own body. I encourage them to consider self-compassion. We would never, for example, say about one of our children who was in pain and crying, "oh, that is my bad kid!” Actually, our body is always working on our behalf - sometimes trying desperately to cope with the less than ideal circumstances with which we have presented it (such as junk food, excess caffeine, lack of exercise, poor posture, lack of sleep, etc.). When our body is in pain it is crying out for help and letting us know something is wrong. Sometimes instead of responding with compassion, we lash out at our body with anger and frustration.

Honoring the mind-body connection is an important part of the healing process. Listening to our body to discern what it needs is important. It's also important to be mindful of the messages we send it with the words we choose.

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