Approach

Transactional analysis psychotherapy

I am trained, to an advanced level, in transactional analysis psychotherapy. Transactional analysis is an approach that emphasises personal growth, self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relationships with others and our capacity to change.

My training is transactional analysis is from an integrative perspective, drawing heavily on Richard Erskine's method of Integrative Psychotherapy.  Erskine's approach emphasises the vital connection between our psychological health and being in relationship with others:

We need relationship: we need to spend time with people who respect and value us, who support our efforts to express ourselves as unique individuals, and who will nurture us when we need nurturing and yet will applaud and celebrate our abilty to take care of ourselves. Psychological health and growth result when epople with whom we are in contact acknowledge these kinds of relational needs and when those people respond to our relational needs appropriately.  Psychological dis-ease, in contrast, arises from relational failure: the cumulative experience of relational needs not met.

                                                                                                                                                                       Erskine et al.  (2014 ) Beyond Empathy. 

Erskine's Integrative Psychotherapy recognises the important role of the therapeutic relationship in supporting clients to achieve an integration of self.  This resonates with my personal philospohy and approach.  I believe that in therapy, we can bring back to awareness and re-integrate the split off parts of self, processing past harms and trauma and strengthening the Adult ego state, so that you feel more grounded, connected and resourceful.   Erskine describes the process of integration in therapy as helping the client to:

Bring back to awareness the sensations, the resonses, the abilities, the hopes and dereams and fears and fantasies that were split off and drive underground as a result of acute or cumulative trauma. In short, interation means becoming whole again, with full access to all that one is and may become.

                                                                                                                                                                          Erskine et al. (2014) Beyond Empathy.

Erskine's method, integrates concepts and techniques from a wide range of therapeutic approaches inlcuding person-centred, transactional analysis, gestalt therapy and contemporary psychoanlaytic perspectives including object relations theory and this has shaped my personal way of working.

Shared Journey

Therapy is a shared journey and if you decide to work with me it will be in a co-creative relationship based on mutual respect, compassion and support. Our therapeutic relationship is underpinned by the three philosophical assumptions that sit at the heart of transactional analysis:

  • You are OK.
  • You have the capacity to think and to problem solve.
  • People decide their own destiny and these decisions can be changed.

What I like most about transactional analysis (TA) is that it provides an accessible, highly practical and structured way of thinking about ourselves making sense of our inner world and our relationship with ourselves, others and the social world we inhabit.

Is transactional analysis psychotherapy right for you?

Some of the over-arching themes that emerge in therapy relate to identity, your sense of who you are in the world, your values, cultural beliefs, boundaries and purpose in life.  Transactional analysis can help you to think and talk about the big things in life, to identify repeating patterns, unhelpful ways of relating and self-defeating behaviours and provide a scaffold to support you to build autonomy and self-agency.

Transactional analysis psychotherapy is an approach that looks to the past, to help you make sense of what is happening in the present.  This works by bringing your unconscious processes into awareness, so that you can reflect, decide what you might like to change and take action. There are many tools in TA that can help you better understand your ways of being and relating. Once you start therapy with me, if you’re interested in learning more, I will offer you psycho-educational resources and worksheets to help you explore some TA concepts and apply them in your daily life.

Transactional analysis psychotherapy is a flexible and creative approach suited to both short-term therapy and longer, psychodynamic work. TA was developed originally as a group psychotherapy and it is effective for both individual 1:1 therapy, psychoeducaiton and group work.

If you are interested in therapy me and would like to book a consultation, please get in touch. Or continue to reading to find out more about TA and how I work.

About transactional analysis psychotherapy

Eric Berne the founder of transactional analysis was a psychiatrist, who trained for a time in Freudian analysis, as a result TA is rooted in psychoanalytic ideas and concepts. One of Eric Berne's primary motivations, in developing TA, was to make psychoanalytic concepts more accessible, understandable and practically useful to the lay-person.

Berne used straight-forward everyday language to explain complex psychoanalytic terms and he created practical models to help his patients think and talk about their ways of being and relating.  Since Eric Berne, the body of theory and the wealth of tools and techniques available to TA practioners has grown and expanded. Transactional analysis is a rich resource applicable to psychotherapy, organisational development, coaching, training and education.

How I work

I work psychodynamically using transactional analysis and drawing on a number of psychoanalytic ideas and concepts that are complementary to and compatible with TA.

Child development is one of my areas of interest, in particular looking at how our early attachment experiences influence our adult relationships. My way of working is strongly influenced by attachment theory and theories of human development as they apply throughout the life cycle.

I have also spent several years studying group analysis and this informs my thinking about group and family dynamics, relationships, communication and social support.

Life Script is an important concept in transactional analysis pyschotherapy and the cornerstone of my approach.  In therapy with me, I would invite you to make use of Script theory to help us explore how your childhood experiences, early environment, relationships, family and cultural history might unconsciously shape your decisions and behaviours in the present.

Contracting, creativity, connection and thinking about change are integral to my approach and I have described this in more detail below.

Contracting

As you are preparing to start psychotherapy, I will invite you to reflect on your goals, by asking what is it that you would like to achieve.

There may be a specific problem that is troubling you that you would like to solve. If so, then it may help to imagine what would change for you if that problem were no longer there. How would your life be better?

For many people, therapy offers a place to explore their current difficulties. You may wish to work with a therapist to understand yourself and your relationships  better or you may wish to process a bereavement, loss or trauma with the aim of reaching a place of acceptance.

If you have in mind already, a goal you would like to achieve, that’s great. If you're still uncertain about how therapy might help, then we will spend some time working this out.

In TA, this process of negotiating and agreeing what you would like to achieve from therapy is called ‘contracting.’ It’s important because it gives us:

  • A shared sense of purpose.
  • A focus on what matters to you.
  • A positive outcome to work towards.

Contracting is about helping you structure and steer the direction of therapy. Your goal may be very broad and over-arching or very specific.  Contracting in transactional analysis psychotherapy is an ongoing process and we can revisit, renegotiate and revise the ‘contract’ as many times as you need.

Creativity

Creativity plays an important part in my clinical work and personal wellbeing. Often, we bring feelings and experiences to therapy that are difficult to put into words. Dreamwork, mark-making, art, music, photography, journaling and creative writing can provide a bridge, helping us find ways to tell and re-tell our story, express our feelings and receive containment.

I believe firmly that all human beings have the capacity to be creative and it is our creative energy that motivates us towards growth and self-actualisation.  However, this creative energy is often blocked by fear, self-doubt and the pressure to "be perfect."

The fears and doubts that cause creative block can come from social and environmental pressures as well as your inner critical voice.  So, I feel it is important to acknowledge that alongside the capacity to create, we do have also the capacity to be destructive.  In therapy, we might think of this, as the shadow-side of creativity, which shows up in the form of harmful behaviours, self-sabotage and self-neglect.  In therapy, I might invite you to reframe these destructive tendencies as defences, which were created perhaps in response to past hurts,  traumatic experiences or social and environmental pressures.

Working together, we can explore both creative and destructive behaviours.  We can think about the underlying beliefs, early decisions and past experiences that might be driving self-defeating behaviours and blocking your creativity.  We can explore how you might begin to replace limiting beliefs, self-critcism and self-sabotage with compassion, permission, self-affirmation and nurture.

Psychotherapy with me is itself a creative process, as together we will seek meaning, build connections and explore possibilities. During therapy, I will invite you to experiment with new ways of being and I will support you in finding new ways of relating to yourself, others and the world around you. So that from what might start in pain, struggle and confusion, you find that something new and exciting emerges.

Confidence

If you are considering therapy, you may be a stage were your confidence and self-esteem are low and you're looking for some help to rebuild and restore.  Transactional analysis psychotherapy focuses on strengthening the Adult ego state.  This involves us working together to tackle self-doubt,  build up your resources and support you in developing a stronger sense of self.  Depending on your wants and needs this might involve boundary setting, working on assertiveness and helping you recognise and address the self-limiting beliefs that are holding you back.

Confidence in therapy is also about building an effective working alliance,  having a space where you can feel heard, accepted and supported.  I am committed to ethical practice and providing you with a safe and confidential space.  You can read more about my approach to confidentiality here.

Connection

Humans are social beings, we are biologically programmed to seek connection with others and we live our lives in groups. I have a long-standing interest in group dynamics and how our family, sibling and community experiences influence our sense of self and our behaviour in professional, study and friendship groups. I offer individual and group therapy and therapeutic dreamwork.

My ongoing training in group analysis informs how I approach my work and I consider group therapy to the best approach for anyone seeking to improve their social confidence, connect with others and overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Change

Therapy is often about change and change in therapy is often about personal growth. This can be a complicated process. You may start out seeking change in yourself and realise in the course of therapy that it is certain things in your environment or in your relationships that need to change first. Or you may come to a realisation that there are many things that you cannot change and therapy becomes about finding a place of acceptance. Sometimes the focus of therapy is on changing your relationship to past events, recent losses or current struggles, so that you feel more at peace and ready to engage with your life as it is now.

Whatever your reasons for starting therapy, it is important to find the right therapist and the best approach for you. To help you decide, I offer a free online consultation, where we will talk about what you would like to achieve and how we might work together.  Contact me to book a consultation or continue exploring to find out more about getting started with therapy.