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Supporting the Supporters:
Trauma-Informed Organizational Care for Interpreters and
Cultural Brokers Serving Refugee Survivors of Torture
June 30, 2026 12:00 - 1:15 PM ET (75 minutes)
About the Trainers
Arima Nam Minard, MA, MS
Arima Nam Minard holds an M.A. in Refugee Studies from University of East London and an M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from University of Vermont. As a recipient of the National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship, Arima has pursued advanced training focused on the
application of multicultural, evidence-informed, and practice-based approaches to mental health care for diverse and historically underserved populations.
Arima currently serves as a clinician with Connecting Cultures and New England Survivors of Torture and Trauma, supporting refugees, immigrants, and displaced populations through trauma-informed and socially conscious care. Her work is grounded in a humanistic and social justice-oriented framework and includes close collaboration with cultural advocates, interpreters, and multidisciplinary providers to support accessible, affirming, and community informed mental health services.
Choeden Lama, MA
Choeden Lama will complete her M.A. in Clinical Counseling Psychology at Saint Michael's College in July 2026 and is beginning her clinical career in mental health counseling with refugee and immigrant communities. Since 2020, she has served as a cultural broker within the Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R) program based in Vermont, supporting refugee and immigrant individuals, families, and communities through collaboration in individual therapy, group work, parent support and community-based services. She has also worked as a Nepali language interpreter in cross-cultural mental health settings since 2019.
Choeden has currently been serving as a clinical intern at Connecting Cultures, where she provides trauma-informed counseling to refugee and immigrant clients. As a Nepali immigrant and multilingual provider, her work is grounded in culturally responsive, community-informed and relationship-centered approaches to care. She is interested in the relational dynamics between clinicians, interpreters, and cultural brokers, and in promoting sustainable, trauma-informed support for providers working with displaced communities.
Description
Interpreters and cultural brokers are vital partners in trauma-informed care for refugees and survivors of displacement and torture, yet their own emotional wellbeing is often overlooked. Working at the intersection of language justice, cultural brokering, and therapeutic care, they frequently carry significant exposure to traumatic material, complex relational dynamics, and the invisible emotional labor of cross-cultural service provision.
This presentation examines the impact of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, and moral injury among interpreters and cultural brokers, while offering a culturally responsive, narrative-informed framework for organizational support. Participants will explore practical strategies—including alliance building, peer support, and trauma-informed wellness programming—to strengthen workforce resilience, interdisciplinary collaboration, and quality of care for survivors.
Learning Objectives
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:
1. Recognize the unique occupational stressors experienced by interpreters and cultural brokers
working with trauma-impacted displaced populations.
2. Increase awareness of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, burnout, and moral injury in the
context of interpreter work.
3. Apply trauma-informed, culturally responsive organizational strategies that support interpreter
wellbeing and improve systems of care.
Who should attend?
Staff of torture rehabilitation programs that are funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and/or are members of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs as well as SASIC Program staff. This session is designed for providers working with survivors of torture populations across disciplines, such as: legal services, social work, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and case management, including but not limited to mental health clinicians, social workers, refugee service providers, torture treatment professionals, interpreters/cultural brokers, supervisors, and organizational leaders engaged in cross-cultural trauma care.
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