TWELVE STEPS (for interpreters)

1. We admitted that we were powerless over the tendency to blurt "Count
me in! I'll do it!", and that our lives had become unmanageable.


2. We have come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could
restore us to sanity.


3. We made a decision to turn our skills and our lives over to the care
of the Interpreter Coordinator, as we understand him/her.


4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our skills.


5. We admitted to our colleagues, to ourselves, and to the Interpreter
Coordinator the exact nature of our wrongs.


6. We were entirely ready to attend workshops to remove all defects in
our interpreting ability.


7. We humbly ask the Deaf to have patience with our shortcomings.


8. We made a list of all the Interpreters we had harmed, and we became
willing to make amends with them all. [Editor would substitute "Deaf
people".]


9. We made direct amends to such interpreters whenever possible, except
when doing so would injure them or others.


10. We continued to attend workshops and when we made an Interpreting
Error, promptly admitted it.


11. We have sought through workshops, feedback, and mentoring to improve
our contact with the Deaf (as we understand them), asking only for
knowledge of the Code of Ethics and the stamina to prevent Overuse
Syndrome.


12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we have
tried to carry this message to other Interpreters, and to practice these
principles in our profession.



- Dan Parvaz

http://www.theinterpretersfriend.com/misc/humr/mhi.html



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