Managing emotional involvement in liaison interpreting

To come to the conclusion right away, managing emotional involvement in liaison interpreting starts with being aware of the issues of emotion, and acknowledging that there will be issues of emotion control in any case. As many liaison interpreters turn interpreters by just starting doing it, many things are learned through accumulation of experiences and blunders. But awareness may come way much later after fumbling on human bond issues time and again without being able to set back and contemplate under the coolness of detachment what has been recurrently happening. If there is anything written around these lines by academics, I would love to get a pointer to the resource. Here are bits and remark en vrac, to tidy up sometimes in the future.

Settings are redundant. In business interpreting, meeting in the hotel lobby, first physical contact, maybe some time for a briefing until meeting with the other side.

In the taxi when running to the client's client office, bonding develops. Socializing circles around standard questions, how long here, what started the interest for the language/country, etc. With Western clients at least, this socializing tends to be an exchange of questions and answers back and forth. There are bits of reciprocal revelations flying around. Issues of origins can warm up things. Recently, with a US customer, I had a brief exchange on family origins. Family is a warm factor. These is a standard feature. He told me about is grandfather French origins. I immediately pondered aloud about the era involved here, guessing sometimes around first WW. Bingo. His grandfather actually survived the war fields. This played a lot in nurturing instant social empathy. Socialization with your customer, not his, comes first. I do not agree that interpretation is neutral, in business. You work for one side. You don't build a bridge starting from the middle.

Showing interest is not only tactical, but can also help later on and right away to better frame who you are working for within what context.
As the setting is about business asking about current circumstances, how one or the industry at large is faring under the crisis is common sense and should nurture the better framing of the setting.

Out of pure communication strategy, ask small questions to better frame the setting, what is to come when your real job starts. Framing to compensate for the ever missing bits of background is essential. It is also a tangible way to show your professionalism.

... to be continued