Whole Interpreter began with a simple observation: when interpreters have space to reflect, reconnect with their values, and support one another, both the interpreter and the work become stronger.

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About Arlyn

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Why This Work Matters

Interpreting is meaningful work, and it asks a great deal of the people who do it. Interpreters regularly navigate complex human experiences. They hold other people’s emotions, struggles, and stories while striving to remain steady, ethical, and clear. Over time, that responsibility can affect interpreters in ways that are rarely discussed openly. 

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Arlyn Anderson’s work centers on supporting interpreters in that reality. Through coaching, teaching, and peer consultation, she creates spaces where interpreters can reflect on their work, reconnect with their strengths and values, and rediscover the sense of purpose that brought them to the profession.

 

Professional Background

Arlyn spent many years working as a sign language interpreter in private practice, first in the San Francisco Bay Area and later in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region. Much of her work took place in mental health environments, where she collaborated with Deaf clients, therapists, and treatment teams navigating complex clinical situations.

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She also worked with Deafblind individuals, emergent signers, and Deaf people managing serious and persistent mental illness. These experiences deepened her respect for the relational and emotional complexity of interpreting work.

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Arlyn began teaching about mental health interpreting in 2002 and has continued to explore best practices, ethics, and collaboration in these settings with interpreters and students around the country.

Her interest in mental health is also personal. When she was eleven years old, her brother died by suicide. That early loss shaped her lifelong curiosity about human resilience, healing, and the ways people support one another through difficult experiences.

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The Shift Toward Coaching and Peer Consultation

As Arlyn taught and consulted with interpreters, she began noticing a common need. Many interpreters wanted a place to reflect on the emotional and ethical dimensions of their work with colleagues who understood the field.

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This led her to train in the Co-Active coaching model and become a certified professional coach through the International Coach Federation. Coaching provided a structure for conversations that help people access their own insight, strength, and clarity.

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Today Arlyn focuses on two areas of work. She coaches a small number of individual clients and leads the Peer Support and Consultation Project for Interpreters (PSCPI). PSCPI is a facilitator training and peer consultation model designed to help interpreters create thoughtful spaces for reflection and growth within the profession. In PSCPI groups, interpreters gather to explore their work through powerful questions, shared insight, and mutual support.

Participants often rediscover energy, perspective, and a deeper connection to their professional values.

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The Whole Interpreter Perspective

Over the years, several ideas have continued to guide Arlyn’s work with interpreters. Interpreters are whole people. Our effectiveness is shaped not only by skill and technique, but also by our clarity, resilience, and emotional bandwidth. 

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Awareness comes before solutions.
Insight often emerges when interpreters are given space to slow down and reflect on their experiences.

Colleagues have wisdom for one another.
Thoughtful conversations among peers can create powerful learning and restore perspective.

Values matter.
When interpreters remain connected to the values that drew them to the profession, their work becomes more sustainable and meaningful.

Growth happens in community.
Supportive spaces where interpreters can think together help restore energy and possibility in the field.

 

A Personal Note

Arlyn’s favorite moments in this work happen when interpreters begin recognizing their own wisdom. Given the right questions and the right company, people often discover clarity, courage, and compassion they did not realize they already carried.