Full course description
Price: $99 $59 – use the discount code FOCUS25 during check out (limited-time offer expires Nov 6, 2025).
Course Overview
Mindfulness for Interpreters is a fully online and self-paced non-credit course. You’ll enjoy the flexibility to learn on your own time, from anywhere in the world.
This four module course will teach you to enhance your interpreting performance capacity through mindfulness techniques grounded in cognitive research. Topics include strategies to improve focus, reduce stress, and maintain mental clarity in high-pressure environments with the goal of integrating mindfulness into your practice to boost concentration and manage stress to optimize your performance in any interpreting setting–diplomatic, medical, legal or conference. By strengthening your ability to regulate your own attention and emotions, and quiet your inner critic, you’ll be equipped to navigate the challenges of interpreting or performing with a calm and focused mind.
- Type/Modality: Online
- Estimated completion time: 8 hours
- Number of modules: 4
- Language of instruction: English
- Activities and content: Short video lectures, reflection questions, research articles, mindfulness practices
- Technical Prerequisites: A networked computer or mobile device is required, as is the capability to stream multimedia audio and video.
- Completion Rewards: After you successfully complete this course, you’ll earn a certificate of completion and a badge to share on your social media profiles and with current and potential employers.
- Continuing Education Units: This program is recognized by the following professional organizations:
- Judicial Council of California Court Interpreter Program for Court Interpreter Minimum Continuing Education (CIMCE) Credit approved for 8 hours with registration ID #7868 as of August 8, 2025.
This course is for you if . . .
You are working as—or are interested in becoming—a professional in conference, medical, legal, or community interpreting seeking to sharpen your focus and manage stress when the pressure is on.
You want to go beyond basic coping mechanisms and learn evidence-based mindfulness techniques to optimize your cognitive performance.
You’re ready to quiet that inner critic and cultivate a calm, clear mind to navigate even the most challenging interpreting assignments.
You’re committed to your professional well-being and understand that mastering your mental state is key to peak performance and a more rewarding interpreting experience.
What you will learn
- The cognitive and emotional challenges of interpreting and the underlying skills required to perform interpreting tasks well.
- Research showing the positive effects of mindfulness practice on interpreting and performing.
- How to strengthen the ability to focus and re-focus your attention.
- The body’s responses to stress and how to calm your own nerves.
- How to recognize and release self-critical thoughts that undermine performance.
- How to experience greater kindness toward yourself as you undertake the difficult work of interpreting.
About the instructor
Julie E. Johnson, EdD is dedicated to helping interpreters optimize their own performance and wellbeing through mindfulness. She’s a Professor of Translation & Interpretation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) where she has received distinctions for her excellence in teaching. Julie is a seasoned professional translator and interpreter, including in settings like executive seminars, conferences, governmental missions, and high-stakes legal proceedings. Recognizing the significant cognitive and emotional demands of the profession, she has centered her research on Cognitive Load Theory and Mindfulness as they apply to interpreting. Julie has integrated mindfulness training into interpreter education at MIIS, where over 250 students have benefited from learning these practices. Through this rich intersection of teaching, professional experience and research, she has become a leading voice on mindfulness and interpreting. Her scholarly work appears in The Routledge Handbook of Conference Interpreting and she gives talks and workshops for fellow trainers and working professionals.
Contact us
- If you have any questions about this course, please email proed@middlebury.edu.
- This course does not count for credit toward a master’s program. If you are interested in a master’s program, visit our translation and interpretations master’s programs.
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